Building asynchronous relationships

Ways to Intentionally Build Asynchronous Communities

1. Having set rituals can support with creating community. For example, having daily check-ins / check-outs for a team working remotely; having acknowledgements and celebrations be a regular part of the communications.
2. Norming Terms: Important to support all team members in understanding any jargon / terms that the community uses. For example, if a team has specific uses for different emojis, it can be helpful to create a guide of what those mean for when new members join the team.
3. Have as much communication in public channels as possible as opposed to primarily using direct messages.
4. Have clear, shared, participant-generated agreements that are consistently communicated and and referred back to.
5. Have topic threads to organize conversations.
6. Most horizontal communities benefit from designated leaders to prompt / respond to questions, and pose conversation starters.

How to select the platform / tools to use:

1. Meet people where they're at. Important to use the tools / platforms that are most accessible to most folks in the community. Even if it means using a facebook group.
2. When there's disagreement about which tools to use, invest the human energy to create alignment on a tool.

The Value of Synchronous

1. Complexity best communicated synchronously. E.g. sending a voice / video note to communicate a nuanced message. Or having phone call checkins (with, for example, supervisors).
2. Some tasks best accomplished synchronously, like coding together.
3. In-person gatherings are incredibly valuable and can enhance asynchronous interactions later on. In-person gatherings allows folks' full humanity to be shared.