Synchronous is fantastic when applied appropriately. The common failing I see isn't with synchronous meetings. It's with arbitrarily scheduled synchronous meet

Synchronous is fantastic when applied appropriately. The common failing I see isn't with synchronous meetings. It's with arbitrarily scheduled synchronous meetings. Scheduling a recurring meeting for a team is a fantastic way to communicate to everyone that they should wait for that recurring meeting to communicate with the team. The least productive points in my career have been characterized by recurring meetings. Once a company gets to the point where recurring meetings drive everything, the meetings themselves become the output for a large number of people. Getting work done is secondary, so long as you have something to talk about in the meetings. Synchronous communication applied judiciously on an as-needed basis is very effective, though. It just shouldn't be the first tool that everyone reaches for for simple problems, nor should it be forced into recurring schedules for the sake of filling up calendars.