While I agree that email is great for asynchronous communication and that asynchronous communication is a fabulous tool, the author completely ignores the benef

While I agree that email is great for asynchronous communication and that asynchronous communication is a fabulous tool, the author completely ignores the benefits of IM. If I have a question for my teammate and they happen to be in a meeting so I can’t ask them directly, I could email them. Let’s say they’re someone who checks email maybe once an hour or twice a day... not exactly going to get a quick response. IM allows me to message them, ask the question, get a response and move on. Something that needs a quick response doesn’t work great in either email or a meeting. That’s one example of a possible benefit to IM. That being said, I think the issues with IM are cultural. We expect an instantaneous response so it’s “bad” to leave a message unread for a few hours. I think it comes down to coaching your teammates what situation warrants what type of communication. It will never be perfect, we’ll always have these debates but we can educate each other on the most efficient ways for each other.