#215 - The Async First Playbook: Build Effective and Inclusive Teams with Less Meetings - Sumeet Moghe

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Are too many meetings killing your productivity and making your team less effective?
Discover a new approach to work where meetings are no longer the default and deep work takes the center stage.

In this episode, Sumeet Moghe, the author of the “Async-First Playbook”, shares actionable insights on building high-performing teams through async-first approach.

Key topics discussed:

• The real reasons behind the return-to-office trend, and why remote and async work are far from dead
• How async-first companies like GitLab, Shopify, and Automattic operate, and why it’s not an all-or-nothing approach
• Surprising survey findings: Why most people want to work remotely, and how meetings and interruptions are damaging productivity
• The async-first mindset: Making meetings the last resort, prioritizing written communication, and defining reasonable response lags
• The ConveRel Quadrants: A framework for deciding when to meet based on relationship strength and meeting purpose
• Inclusion as a first-class responsibility: How async work empowers introverts, non-native speakers, parents, and diverse team members
• The “default to action” principle: How teams can move faster by embracing reversible decisions and reducing bottlenecks
• Async-first leadership: Building trust, modeling the right behaviors, and creating systems that replace performative busyness
• Practical tips for better business writing and reading, plus how AI tools can supercharge your communication
• The future of work: Why top talent will continue to demand autonomy, and how AI and fractional work are shaping new collaboration models

Tune in to discover how to build high-performing, effective and inclusive teams with fewer meetings by adopting async-first.  

Timestamps:

• (02:19) Career Turning Points
• (06:21) The Return to Office Trend
• (11:36) Companies Embracing Async-First
• (13:20) People’s Working Style Preference
• (17:37) What is Async-First?
• (21:39) Team Handbook and Ways of Working
• (23:24) The ConveRel Quadrants
• (27:41) Inclusion as a First-Class Responsibility
• (32:14) Defaulting to Action
• (35:50) Async-First Leadership
• (40:38) Being Good in Written Communication
• (44:35) AI Usage in Written Communication
• (46:17) Time to Read and Reading Comprehension
• (51:14) The Future of Work
• (58:33) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom

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Sumeet Moghe’s Bio
Sumeet Gayathri Moghe is an Agile enthusiast, product manager, and design nerd at Thoughtworks. Sumeet has recently authored The Async-First Playbook. His practical recommendations for effective collaboration within remote and distributed teams stand for what he’s learned from his colleagues, their successes, and their occasional misadventures.

Sumeet kicked off “The async-first manifesto” , a set of principles he is co-creating with volunteer enthusiasts from around the world. He is also bringing async-work to life with stories of “Humans of remote work” .

Follow Sumeet:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/sumeetmoghe
• Website – asyncagile.org
• 📚 Async-First Playbook – https://informit.com/async
• Use the code "MOGHE" to get 35% off

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