In the last issue of “” we discussed three articles about the effectiveness of various processes. About how “«, «" and "«.
This article is a compilation of short summaries from all three, along with my subjective thoughts under the banner of universal frustration over inefficiency.
In the average company where I worked and work, all the problems that these guys are trying to solve are fully present.
About how Bezos turned off PowerPoint.
As we are told, , comrade Bezos changed the rules of corporate meetings. Now colleagues gather and read silently for about half an hour after the meeting starts the records prepared by the speaker.
Then those who have nothing to add or are Informed (from the RACI matrix) can stand up and leave. Those who need to work with the proposals stay behind, ask questions, make suggestions, and schedule the next meetings.
In my opinion, it’s a perfectly normal idea since corporate meetings often waste time on 'cappish' questions and summaries from those who want to impress the management. As well as on various jokes and debates.
Another advantage of reading the doc silently is that some speakers may read slowly (or too quickly) or have various unpleasant speech defects.
I understand that implementing such radical changes to the meeting regulations is not an easy task, but I hope it plants a rational seed in the minds of those participating.
A CEO who demands to work five hours a day without distractions.
The CEO of a German company recently started forcing people to work for five hours and banned them from being distracted by phones and social media during that time. People are in shock but have become happier and more productive.
He also mentioned that he had a similar experience before when he negotiated with his employer for a lower salary in exchange for two extra days off each week. After some time, noticing that he was completing the same amount of work as before, he negotiated with his employer to restore his previous salary level.
Nowadays, articles about startups and companies that adopt similar practices are increasingly common. I believe there is some rational truth in this, and if we consider the effective part of the workday, it's unlikely we work more than 6 hours.
In some companies, there is also an 'overtime culture,' where, to demonstrate their commitment, people stay at work for 10 to 12 hours or even more. With each additional hour, the average productivity of such employees tends to approach zero. You can often find them in the hall of fame for burnout.
Working less but more effectively is, in my opinion, a great trend that can free up several hours each week for interactions with those who truly matter to you (yourself and loved ones).
Asynchronous communication of dualists.
The Doist team—creators of the well-known Todoist. Their CEO writes in an article, "" about how they implemented this system within their company. There are several interesting points from it.
Definitions:
- Asynchronous communication is when you send a message and do not expect an immediate response. For example, in email;
- Synchronous communication, on the other hand, is when you send a message, the recipient receives it immediately, and likewise begins to respond immediately. This also includes real-time communication (meetings and one-on-one sessions).
According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, communication time in offices has increased by 50% over the past 10 years. Workers spend up to 80% of their time responding to emails and communicating.
Disadvantages of Synchronous Communication:
- Constant distractions. As procrastination expert Maxim Dorofeyev writes and states, to be more productive, one must turn off all notifications in messengers. Here, it's the opposite. An enormous number of notifications in the work chat constantly distracts from tasks, making it often impossible to focus.
- People prioritize being constantly connected over being productive.
- Adds stress, as constant distractions prevent us from distributing our workload evenly, forcing us to rush.
- Leads to quick, low-quality decisions.
Advantages of Asynchronous Communication:
- Control over scheduling your work time;
- High-quality communication instead of reactive responses. Communication is much slower and encourages people to be more effective and make more thoughtful decisions;
- Less stress. You can act completely according to your work schedule;
- By default, the state of flow (since there are no distractions);
- Automatic documentation if public communication tools are used (like GitHub or some forum engine, for example);
- Tolerance for different time zones (we can set any time lag in anticipation of a response).
It's impossible to completely eliminate synchronous communication. Dualists suggest creating important synchronous chats (like Telegram if the server crashes), one-on-one meetings, and team retreats.
What do the dualists suggest:
- 70% async communication: Twist, GitHub, Paper;
- 25% sync communication: Zoom, Appear.in, Google Meet;
- 5% offline meetings and retreats.
What they recommend to implement a culture of asynchronous communication:
- Over-communicate. Describe everything in writing as detailed as possible, anticipating potential questions;
- Plan interactions ahead. Example: "I want to finish this in 2 days and would appreciate your input" instead of "I expect feedback from you within an hour";
- Always check document sharing settings (it seems they had issues with this, and someone waited for document sharing for more than a day);
- Before the meeting, share all necessary documents with all participants to keep everyone informed;
- After the meeting, all discussed items should be included in the meeting document (dualists even practice recording meetings so that someone can participate asynchronously);
- Turn off all notifications;
- Make productive use of waiting time.
Tips for leaders from dualists:
- Encourage written communication;
- Evaluate people based on performance, not on their soft skills or how much time they spend at work;
- Forget about work hours. (Who comes and leaves at what time);
- Create an atmosphere of trust (dualists mean that everyone is accountable for their words, and the team should be confident that if you promised to deliver code tomorrow, you will do it);
- Increase personal accountability in the field;
- Set an acceptable response time. Dualists have 24 hours;
- Prioritize transparency. This means that the maximum number of issues should be discussed publicly within the company;
- Add urgent communication channels.
Two points particularly puzzled me:
- About neglecting soft skills. In my experience, well-maintained code rarely comes from misanthropes (it simply contradicts their feelings). I believe that code reviews with such individuals will demotivate even the most composed team;
- Regarding what dualists call a 'trust atmosphere' (if you promised to deliver tomorrow, the team should be confident that you will deliver the code tomorrow). In my opinion, this point will introduce the anxiety we eliminated during the transition to asynchronous communication.
Overall, I liked the ideas suggested by dualists. However, I feel that this will be a trade of 'shovel for soap,' meaning that despite winning against constant distractions, we still face persistent issues — deadlines and the inertia of the taskmaster.
In conclusion
Ideas about round-the-clock squeezing of juice from people are taking a back seat. Corporations now want people to work more efficiently and spend more time consuming to sustain the economy.
Please share your ideas on these topics in the comments. Perhaps you have already implemented something similar in your companies. Drop links to similar radical experiments.
Come chat in our cozy Telegram group . There you can communicate synchronously, distracted from anything.
Source: habr.com
