Part 1: What do all day Zoom meetings and CDROMs have in common?
Part 2: How does Basecamp do it?
Part 3: How does Automattic do it?
Part 4: How does Linux do it?

The power of asynchronous communication

“You may still want to say it right now, but they can almost certainly hear it later.”

Automattic does not use meetings as a primary form of communication - after all, people should be occupied with their work. If everyone is working on different things, the only way to get them all to break at the same time, is to force them to stop what they’re doing! This is why asynchronous communication is so powerful - it encourages focus. Is forcing people to stop, or postponing their start, really worth what they’re about to hear?

However, Automattic won’t shun meetings altogether. Undeniably, there are situations where meetings are simply unavoidable, and sometimes, even productive.

Two tips to boost meeting productivity

A meeting should only be held in the case that the same outcomes can’t be reached via a phone call, email, or instant message.

Set the meeting to 15 minutes by default, and only make it longer if absolutely necessary (the shorter the meeting, the less time there will be for pointless small talk).
Set a specific agenda and desired outcome before going into the meeting, and only include those whose involvement is absolutely necessary.

Two Automattic-specific habits

“For the high flyers”

Post the agenda ahead of time, so that those who need more time to prepare, or don’t speak English as their first language, get the opportunity to prepare.
Rotate the call host and note takers so that each member of the team gets a go at it. And, when the host is someone in a different timezone, shift the call to accommodate their workday.

These are some ways to maximise meeting productivity in the case that they can’t be avoided. But ultimately, real-time communication encourages distraction, asynchronous communication encourages focus.

“Don’t take people’s attention, give people back their attention so they can spend it in much more profitable ways.”

  	
   Automattic are the people behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Simplenote and Tumblr, among others. WordPress powers over 35% of all the world’s websites (450 million+ ), Tumblr, a blogging and social networking platform, is currently being used by almost 500 million people, just to give an idea of the extent of the successes of the company. They have barely been affected by the dramatic series of events following the past five months, and are a company that (in these extraordinary times) are thriving, not just surviving. 

Like Basecamp, Automattic doesn’t like meetings.

The power of asynchronous communication

Two tips to boost meeting productivity

Two Automattic-specific habits

Further Reading