Hybrid work: 2023 will be all about async

As the year kicks off, we’re taking stock of where we’ve been — and what’s ahead — for modern internal communication strategies.

• 2020 was the year of forced remote work.
• 2021 was Hybrid 1.0 — taking our office systems digital.
• 2022 will be Hybrid 2.0 — long-term distributed teams.

We got into deep discussion on 2.0 recently, but today our sights are set even further ahead — what 2023 may have in store.

2023 will be all about async, says Amplify Founder Lars Schmidt. So much work is rooted in synchronous communication — coordinating and collaborating all around the world in real-time.

• Most is done over tools like Zoom — a 1.0 version of hybrid work — but we still sit in meetings that should have been emails and “live” collaborations that create more questions than they answer.

Why it matters: There are more efficient ways to work. And as companies admit hybrid is here for the long haul, it’s more critical than ever to embrace more effective ways to communicate.

🔓Teams that “unlock the power of asynchronous coordination” will have “a huge advantage in 2023 and beyond,” says Lars. But it means making change now to prepare for then: 

• Re-engineering team ops with a communication cadence and toolset that support distributed work.
• Getting better at documenting ideas, progress and process in a clear way that all teams can access.
• Experimenting with video and audio messages when they’re the best format for your update. 

While there may not be data or white papers to show what “smart” async collaboration will look like — we're all co-creating it in real time — there is a framework that can help leaders approach this gray area with intention.

How it works: Ask yourself three questions, AJ Thomas, head of people products, strategy and operations at X, the Moonshot Factory:

• What is it that I’m solving for?
• How do I retain the people I have now?
• How do I go at this with intention?

“That may help shift perspectives,” AJ says. “With everything changing, the only thing that can be stable is, ‘What is it that I'm solving for?’… All the tactics, I promise, will lay out, and you'll have plenty of choices.”

👉Go deeper: How to be a more skillful communicator