Our remote teams have this culture that you say is impossible. They're in their chats or voice calls all day communicating, and measurably crush the in-office teams' productivity, maybe due to the efficiencies gained by going async, or maybe due to the type of people (people who find interactions through text more meaningful than in person or verbal, and insist upon it)
The in office teams on the other hand seem to rely on synchronous work and so they block each other, and this seems to mean the group can only finish a small number of tasks per day, whereas our remote teams complete bigger work more frequently.
I also find a lot of our juniors or quieter folk are a lot more confident talking to people in the remote setting.
I've recently been finding that even where in-person meetings are an option, having everyone at their desk with full access to all their files, emails etc. along with the ability to quickly and easily share their screen is just more productive. There's far less need to make a list of things to follow up during the meeting because you can usually take care of these things as they come up.
The in office teams on the other hand seem to rely on synchronous work and so they block each other, and this seems to mean the group can only finish a small number of tasks per day, whereas our remote teams complete bigger work more frequently.
I also find a lot of our juniors or quieter folk are a lot more confident talking to people in the remote setting.