Stay In Sync without Syncs: A New Interactive Ebook

Distributed and hybrid teams are on the frontier of modern work, but that doesn’t come without challenges. From working around conflicting schedules to battling burnout, today’s workplaces are full of hidden hurdles. It’s no wonder over 20 percent of employees say collaboration and communication are their biggest struggles in working remotely.

So what are teams like yours to do? According to New York Times best-selling author, digital anthropologist and Skillshare teacher Rahaf Harfoush, the answer lies in more empathetic digital communication and goal-oriented adaptive planning. 

The secrets to mastering each of those concepts are laid out in a new interactive ebook, Stay In Sync without Syncs. 

What’s It About? 

This ebook is based on insights from two Skillshare classes by teacher Rahaf Harfoush. Those classes, both part of Rahaf’s “Personal & Professional Development” series, are “Developing Digital Norms For Happy Teams” and “Creating Adaptive Planning Systems For Teams.” 

The insights are organized into two detailed and interactive sections: 

Digital Communication

In the first section, you’ll learn how to:

• communicate with your team in an asynchronous world;
• analyze your digital communication style; and
• be more cognizant of team members’ differing time zones and schedules.

Along the way, you’ll complete activities such as: 

• assessing your personal communication preferences;
• outlining your own time constraints; and 
• creating a digital charter to establish day-to-day consistency amongst your team.

Adaptive Planning 

Next, you’ll learn how to: 

• use adaptive planning to better work with a distributed team;
• apply adaptive planning to your own life; and 
• more effectively adapt to plans that are neither definite nor straightforward.

As you learn, you’ll be able to participate in activities like: 

• assessing your own planning preferences; 
• digging into your planning needs using the four pillars of adaptive planning; and
• creating a mock calendar to establish your goals and priorities. 

Want to follow along with the ebook’s topics or get a better understanding of the principles being discussed? Check out Rahaf’s classes on Skillshare. 

How Does It Work? 

From start to finish, this entire ebook is interactive. But what does that mean, exactly?

Each of the ebook’s two sections comes with three customizable exercises. Many are designed to evaluate the way you and your team currently communicate and plan, while others will help you discover new ways to improve your existing strategy and make the most of asynchronous working. 

Don’t worry about needing to fire up your printer in order to participate, either. Simply download the ebook to your computer and you can complete every activity right from the PDF file (the trees will be glad you did). 

Who Should Read It? 

Just about anyone who works in a team environment can benefit from reading this ebook and completing its included activities. Even if you communicate with your colleagues solely through Slack, there’s something here for you. 

But we think you’ll find its contents especially useful if you’re part of a distributed team working across different schedules and time zones. With nearly 60 percent of remote teams working within a span of 2–5 time zones, you’d be far from alone. 

That’s particularly true if your team doesn’t yet have an effective process for communicating and planning that works for everyone. By the time you finish this ebook, you’ll be well on your way to creating one.

Ready to sync up with your team like never before? Get your copy of Stay in Sync without Syncs now, and help your team effectively and efficiently streamline their work.