Teams benefit from making simple phrases part of their language. This helps us remind each other of good practices. For example, to encourage simple design, we use the phrase YAGNI - “You ain’t gonna need it.” Similarly the phrase DRY - “Don’t repeat yourself.” encourages us to avoid redundancy in our code.
Make “async-first” a part of your team’s vocabulary. Here are a few examples.
Setting up a meeting? How about you go “async-first”?
Someone asks for a quick sync? How about you start “async-first”?
See a conversation going nowhere? Go “async-first” and then sync up later.
Planning a workshop? How can you set yourself up for success by going “async-first”?
“Async-first” is not just a label for a way of working, it’s also a reminder for the default order in which we approach our interactions.
Async-first, sync-next.