Asynchronous collaboration is the ability to collaborate with your team members on a common problem but not at the same time.
It has far reaching benefits for companies of all sizes. With reduced reliance on immediate response and results, the team can increase their overall productivity. This type of collaboration will allow an employee to digest the input, take their time to develop a thoughtful response while enabling them to work seamlessly irrespective of time zone and location. This kind of opportunity allows the employee to optimize their workday according to their personal productivity level throughout the day and not limit themselves to a 9 to 5 schedule. Asynchoronous collaboration opens up multiple collaboration opportunities for global companies with distributed teams working in different time zones. The asynchronous collaboration method can be used for status update, tracking progress or giving feedback. This method can be adopted by a global team for developing a knowledge intensive asset.
When it comes to real collaboration and solution oriented approach, current asychronous tools like email and chat platforms present multiple limitation. Conversations tend to get lost in threads and it becomes impossible to organize all that information in a useful format. 2D collaboration tools just increase our screen time and prevent us from completely focusing on the problem. A single ping of a message or mail is enough to distract our brain and delay our response on the asynchronous project. A study by Microsoft concluded that 30% of the people are emailing during a video call.
Harvard Business Review in its research discovered that an engaged employee is 55% more productive than one who is not and now, thanks to virtual reality and its productivity tools, VR office is the refined solution for asynchornous collaboration. Below are some inherent advantages of 3D solution that overcome the limitation of the traditional 2D asynchronous collaboration tools.
Full Focus Mode
Unlike on 2D collaboration platforms, VR allows the participant to fully focus on the context. A study by PwC highlighted that VR users are 3.75 times more likely to connect with the content than in a classroom physical setting. Once you wear the VR headset, you enter a no-distraction environment where you won’t be able to see any notifications and hence would be completely immersed to solve the problem at hand. Estimates have shown on an average it takes 23 minutes to regain deep focus after an interruption. Thus by distancing yourself from such distractions VR enables you to achieve deep focus.
Productivity Tool Kit
VR offices provide a wide range of productivity tools like pinboards, 3D objects for mind mapping, whiteboards, online browsing and more. The availability of varied tools at the fingertips would enable you to visualize your idea in its entirety. Using these tools you will be able to visualize all the information simultaneously and in a comprehensive manner. Hnece the next team members will be fully informed and ready to add their own input.
Persistent Content
While some team member worked on the project in the morning others can access their output and build on it when they are asleep. In VR your subject matter will continue to stay in the room even if you leave the space. This allows anyone to enter the room at any time and work independently on a subject or recap a session at a later point in time.
