Why haven’t we embraced asynchronous digital activities at work – when they’re so effective in our personal lives?
This article was originally published on The Creative Engagement Group's blog here: https://www.tceg.com/news/why-havent-we-embraced-asynchronous-digital-activities-at-work-when-theyre-so-effective-in-our-personal-lives
You can read more great articles from our agency here
After almost a year of video calls, we’ve all experienced ‘Zoom fatigue’ at some point. It’s no wonder: in an online meeting, you almost have to perform for the webcam and microphone. It’s exhausting having to be ‘on’ like this – while trying to learn new reflex actions like checking you’re on or off mute at the right time. We tend to feel the fatigue most on busy days, when we miss the chance to stretch our legs and make a cup of tea as we move from one physical meeting room to another.
The flip to online learning has piled on yet more pressure to perform, exacerbated by professionals who cling to the traditional forms of training: they take their whiteboards and flip charts online, continuing to inflict death by PowerPoint.
Yet outside of work, video calls are just one small facet of our rich digital social lives. We share the love through messages, GIFs, stickers, and links to funny videos. It’s often on group chats and social feeds that we share our lockdown lives with friends and family… mostly without turning on a camera or microphone!
This is what I mean by asynchronous digital activities – you can read, send and respond when it suits you. They live ‘out of time’ in a chat or feed rather than existing just for an hour on a video call.
So why haven’t we professionally embraced the kinds of asynchronous digital activities that work so well in our personal lives? Why don’t we think beyond ‘real time’ learning and give ourselves a break from Zoom fatigue?
There are many clear benefits to ditching the rigid online timetables and taking a more flexible, asynchronous approach to online learning.
1. Time
Asynchronous communications work well across global organisations where learners and experts collaborate with each other across time zones. One of the main challenges of delivering virtual classrooms is one of simple logistics: video conferencing can be difficult to schedule. Asynchronous schedules, however, are freed from this constraint; a comment made in Paris can be constructively answered in San Francisco nine hours later. Even within the same time zone, an insistence on real time learning can make online life more difficult and restricted than it needs to be.
2. Interactivity
When we are drawn into Twitter or Instagram, we most often respond to someone else's content – a beautiful image, an instructive video, a powerful and engaging statement, or a question that piques your curiosity and prompts a response.
When it comes to planning a learning ‘path’ – a drumbeat of content and social interactions – dropping a well-timed question for participants to discuss can be as useful, if not more, than another hour on Zoom. I’m not suggesting there’s no place for trainers in this. They become facilitators to the asynchronous online conversations. To get the best out of participants in a comment section, you want a trainer to nurture the conversation, setting out the objectives and being that human ‘sounding board’ for your participants to address.
3. Social commentary becomes a unique learning tool
Over time, layers of comments on an item of content create new value to your organisation. Think of a generic video on risk management – the same video in hundreds of organisations worldwide, given new value by the commentary and application of your workforce. Social commentary will gain rich contextual information through comment and debate, unique to that organization. The content is not only the video – but your learners’ interactions with it.
4. Opportunity for reflection
Inside a virtual classroom, learners can give and receive engaged, spontaneous responses which are invaluable for creating an ongoing, thoughtful dialogue. In asynchronous communications, such as comment walls, learners gain the opportunity for reflection and further education, able to spend time putting together informed responses to the questions posed.
5. Building momentum
Building and sustaining momentum are an important and rewarding part of a blended programme. As with any real-life conversation, a natural drift away from continued engagement happens over time, especially if the forums are always-on and always-available. The solution is to deploy the techniques of a synchronous course in an asynchronous format. For example, an online forum may only be available for three days. This scarcity of access can help build momentum, and thereby engagement with a learning activity.
One of my earlier designs for a blended learning program was for a biochemistry undergraduate degree. The students had access to a rich bank of learning materials and group discussion forums. Each week, they had specific topics to explore in the discussion forum and this gave them a sense of focus and purpose. The forums were facilitated by teaching assistants and closely monitored to keep the conversation on-topic and draw drifting students back in. When a group hit a natural blocker – when they did not have the knowledge to progress – they were encouraged to stop and seek more information. This was fascinating to watch – I could see groups of students halt, realize that they could not progress an idea and then form groups in the library. They paused, collaborated to uncover what they needed and, only when they had more to contribute, came back to the social setting. Engagement and performance in the module improved.
6. Asynchronous communication fits better with our lives
The ease and flexibility of asynchronous interaction is readily transferable from our personal digital lives into corporate learning. Shorter spurts of activity are easier to fit into our lives; far easier than a long fitness workout class on YouTube or the many social virtual pop quizzes we all failed to attend over lockdown. Rolling continuous engagement, managed as-and-when you are able, is more manageable and accessible than another compulsory video class.
It will be an interesting twist this year if, after the sudden move to virtual and a massive uptake in very modern communication technologies, we end up gravitating towards a lower tech, slower and more considered version of life on the World Wide Web.
You can read more great articles from our agency here
Great piece, Eoin. Do you have a companion piece that suggests an answer to your question? Everything you say explains why it's puzzling that we communicate at work differently than we communicate away from work. But why do we do that? I don't believe this is just about L&D folk clinging to old ways. Could it be that entering the institution of work triggers the same expectations and behaviours in all of us as were triggered when we entered the institution of school? Would love to understand what's going on here as this is a very consequential phenomenon.
Agree, Eoin. There's much more we can do with asynchronous experiences. I think that's why moves to include more "social" interaction and discussion in spaces like Microsoft Teams is potentially powerful. Bringing together globally distributed employees and tapping into their knowledge of their own diverse contexts can drive creativity and innovation, never mind any focus specific learning content. There's also a way to use these channels to "market" a learning culture – maybe roles in L&D such as a Community Engagement Manager will be on the increase to facilitate these asynchronous experiences.