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My last newsletter<\/a> described the overlooked importance of synchrony within an organization. Communal rhythms, routines, and periods of activity and rest can strengthen your team\u2019s shared mission and work.<\/p>\n Yet a variety of social, economic, and technological forces have eroded our sense of shared time, and we often default to asynchronous interaction in our professional and personal lives.<\/p>\n For those of us leading teams or organizing communities, that erosion is no mere cultural shift. It\u2019s a practical problem.<\/p>\n We can\u2019t turn back the clock and live like it\u2019s 1996. What we can do is recognize that synchrony is something we must intentionally develop and sustain.<\/p>\n I find it helpful to approach organizational synchrony from three different perspectives. Let\u2019s look at each one in turn.<\/p>\n Even if your organization has core work hours or standing meetings, not everyone experiences shared moments in the same way.<\/p>\n For example, I am on the board of an arts nonprofit, and we meet monthly at 9:00 AM. Meetings are attended by community members working standard daytime hours, and performing artists whose workday unfolds mainly during afternoons, evenings, and weekends. We were fortunate to identify a time that works for all. Yet I observed that individual board members experienced \u201c9:00 AM\u201d in different ways, and we often felt out of sync for the first 15 minutes of each meeting: some were already thinking of their 10:00 appointment; others were rising early after a rehearsal the night before.<\/p>\n How do we begin to balance the advantages of a diverse team with the challenges of conflicting individual rhythms?<\/p>\n Over the past decade, we\u2019ve witnessed a proliferation of tech tools designed to help us collaborate. These apps are (mostly) wonderful. I can\u2019t imagine functioning across a distributed team without Slack, Teams, or e-mail.<\/p>\n The drawback to these tools is that they make asynchronous work the more appealing option: they remove barriers to this mode of work, often gamifying the experience through a colorful interface and mini-dopamine rushes with each notification.<\/p>\n Moreover, these tech tools don\u2019t always improve efficiency. (E-mail, in particular, can be highly inefficient and a significant burden on our limited time.)<\/p>\n Ready for a reset?<\/p>\nHow individuals experience time<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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How organizational processes support synchrony<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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How your organizational culture sustains synchrony<\/strong><\/h4>\n