Liam Martin and Rob Rawson recently published “Running Remote: Master the Lessons from the World’s Most Successful Remote-Work Pioneers,” and I had the opportunity to ask Liam a few questions about it.
As a side note, I read the book and think it’s fantastic. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy.
Here’s a short interview with Liam Martin about Running Remote
Q: You mention in your book that the content is not really about remote work, but more about this concept called “Asynchronous Management” – what does that term mean and why is there a need for it?
A: Asynchronous Management is the ability to run a business without simultaneous interactions. Think of regular TV vs Netflix. If you show up late to a show, you have to wait months for a rerun. With Netflix, you can consume the information when it’s most opportunistic for you which makes you less stressed and significantly more productive.
Q: Why is having an “Asynch Mindset” important to thrive, and what companies are successfully implementing this way of working? (are there any examples of large companies that successfully do this?)
A: Most async orgs delegate management to the platform and not necessarily the individual. So reporting of information and metrics as an example is automated and available to everyone. This seems difficult in the beginning but long term this significantly improves the speed of your organization. A few notable async organizations (most of which are in the book) are: WordPress, Basecamp, Gitlab, ToDoist, Airbnb, Remote.com and quite a few others (I estimate about 1000 companies globally run async but they’re some of the most successful technology companies in the world).
Q: Why do you believe that asynchronous work is more important than remote work itself?
A: The beauty of async is it can be done in an office or remote. Gaining the value of async doesn’t have to be restricted to remote companies, and you can get significant productivity improvements by not interrupting team members in an office setting.
Q: What are some of the pros and cons of remote work? (and how does Asynch help amplify the pros and minimize the cons?)
A: Pros: Cheaper, more efficient, more productive, easier to scale, easier to downgrade, and healthier happier employees.
Cons: Communication gaps (which async solves), lack of engagement (which you can find in other places and async somewhat solves), and management challenges which async completely solves for.
Q: What is needed to move from a Synch to an Asynch world? Do you do this in phases or just jump right into it? What tools do you need to implement an asynch way of working?
A: To any org looking to make the jump I suggest 3 simple steps.
Step 1: Read Running Remote!
Step 2: Get all your team members to write down a ‘How to do your job” document that somebody from another department can understand.
Step 3: Run an experiment called Async Week were you don’t communicate asynchronously for a week. Survey your team and ask them if they liked async week and if they’d like more of it. In 95% of cases, they love it and want more.
You can grab the book by clicking here: “Running Remote: Master the Lessons from the World’s Most Successful Remote-Work Pioneers”
