candid vs warm

Topic: Should we adopt async-first standups?
Axis varied: tone
A: Candid B: Warm

What to notice

Both examples address the same topic and (by default) share every axis other than tone. The only deliberate variable is which tone the writing was rendered through. Read both and ask: where does the framing change? Where does the vocabulary change? What does the reader take away from A that they would not take away from B, and vice versa? The tone swap is the entire cause of those differences.

A: candid

Team,

I want to be direct about something: our daily standup is not delivering what it is supposed to deliver, and we need to change it.

Here is the honest picture. We have three engineers who join at 9:30pm their local time on most days - and when they cannot make it, they miss information that affects their work. We have engineers who post “same as yesterday” most Tuesdays because nothing has actually changed since Monday’s standup. We have blockers that get mentioned in the meeting and then disappear because nobody wrote them down. The standup takes 14 minutes on average and the signal-to-noise ratio is not good.

I know this is not news to some of you. I have been aware of it for a while and I should have said something sooner.

Here is what I think we should do: replace the synchronous standup with an async format for 30 days. Three questions, answered in Slack by 10am local time: what shipped, what is in progress today, what is blocked or at risk. Blocked items require a @mention. I read the channel each morning and make sure blocks get resolved the same day.

This does not fix everything. If people do not post consistently, the format breaks. If I do not read the channel attentively, blocked items will pile up. I am asking for your participation and holding myself accountable to the same standard.

The synchronous meeting I want to preserve is Thursday working sessions - real collaboration, not status.

I would rather try this and learn than continue a format that is not working. We will review at 30 days and make a permanent call together.

Any questions, come find me.

B: warm

Hey team,

I want to share something I have been sitting with for a few weeks, and I want your honest reaction to it.

Our standup is not working well for everyone on this team. I know that. The people joining at 9:30pm their time - I see you, and I appreciate that you keep showing up. That should not be the ask. You should not have to choose between participating in the team rhythm and having a life after 9pm.

I have been looking at how other teams handle this, and I want to try something: moving to an async standup format for 30 days. Each person posts a short update to #team-standup by 10am their local time - what shipped, what is in progress, what is blocked. If you are blocked, you @mention the person who can help. I commit to reading the channel every morning and making sure blocked items get attention the same day.

What I hope this gives you is the ability to participate in a way that actually fits your day. A standup that requires me to see you all at the same moment was designed for a team that lived in the same building. We are not that team. I want our coordination practice to match the team we actually are.

I do not want to lose the sense of being in this together, so I want to keep a weekly sync on Thursdays - not for status, just for the work that needs real conversation. That is the standup I want to grow.

Can you each take five minutes this week to think about whether this would work for you? Drop your reactions in thread. If there are concerns I have not thought through, I want to hear them before we start.

Grateful to be building this with you.