Communicating Effectively for Project Management

With project management, communication is about people skills, building relationships, getting commitments and managing them.   Communication is more than just words; it has to do with spirit, attitude, and often timing (Stolovich, n.d.).  When building relationships, it’s important to know your stakeholders as well as their preferences for communication (Allen & Hardin, 2008; Portny et al. 2008).  While it may not be feasible to cater to every stakeholder individually, it helps to know how the most important drivers and contributors respond to information delivered in various forms.   In the effort to get things done, it’s usually necessary to communicate both informally and formally.   Commitments that evolve from informal communication should always be put in writing (Portny et al, 2008; Stolovich, n.d.). 

The Laureate interactive learning media, “The Art of Effective Communication,” was an experiment in communication through various modalities.   I experienced the exact same message in the form of an e-mail, a voice mail, and video message, and I came away with some very different ideas about the urgency of the message.   In the real world, I think the face-to-face message would have been most effective because there would have been opportunity for both parties to check their understanding.   Communication is about sending and receiving information with the goal of understanding.  Unfortunately, understanding can be elusive in the midst of noise.  Messages are often lost or distorted as a result of the medium chosen to deliver them.  

The content of the message had to do with a co-worker requesting that a colleague give her an ETA on the completion of a report.  She explained through all three modalities that she needed the information in order to make her deadline, and used the exact same wording.      

E-mail

The e-mail request seemed to convey more urgency because it was in writing, and was sent to the colleague while s/he is possibly “in an all-day meeting.”  If I were in the position of the receiver and checking my e-mail on a break from the meeting, I would interpret the sender to be in a frantic state where she needs an update from me before the end of the day, or while I’m in the meeting.  In response, I might e-mail her back letting her know what the status of the report is.   If it were ready, I would send it to her.   

Voice Mail

The voice mail message with the same wording as the e-mailed conveyed less urgency.  Now that I could hear the sender’s voice, the issue seemed less important.  Her tone was relaxed and friendly. She spoke slowly, so I clearly understood that she needed and ETA on the report, but would prefer if I could send the report to her via e-mail.  If I had picked up this voice mail while on break from an all-day meeting, I would make sure I touched bases with the sender before the end of the day. 

Face-to-Face

With the face-to-face scenario, the sender came across as extremely casual.  I could now see her facial expressions and I could hear her tone.  While her words express a very important message, the fact that she was delivering it over a cubicle wall seemed to indicate a casual tone.   Moreover, she smiles while thanking her colleague for getting up to speed on the missing report.   How nice?  If I were on the receiving end of this communication, I would probably give my co-worker an update right away, and inquire with her about her deadline.  Depending on my work load, I would either try to get the report completed expeditiously, or I would negotiate for more time.

References

Allen, S., & Hardin, P. C. (2008). Developing instructional technology products using effective project management practices. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 19(2), 72–97.  

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Laureate Education (n.d.). The art of effective communication [Multimedia learning object]. Available from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

Stolovich (n.d.), Communicating with Stakeholders [Video]. Laureate Education. Available from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/

My Party Project Post Mortem

One of the best ways to learn and grow is by reflecting on past experiences.   Projects are no different in this regard, so I’ll reflect a bit on a personal project that was gratifying, but could have been pulled off with just a tad fewer glitches.   Some years ago, my daughter and son had graduations in the same year.  My daughter was completing high school while my son was finishing junior high.  Both had expressed an interest in having a party, but had also mentioned that they’d like some other types of recognition as well.   At the time, my son’s favorite line was,   “Of course, it doesn’t hurt if it’s green!”  

In deliberating over whether to give gifts alone or throw a huge party, I began to count the costs for invitations, food, decorations, new patio furniture, a tent, etc.  I began to visualize what the whole set-up would look like, where the food table would go in the backyard, who we might invite, who would handle the music, so on and so forth.  What I failed to do is commit to the project.  While shopping for new patio furniture and a tent with the idea of having guests eventually, I could not confirm whether we were having a party or not.   And believe me, the kids asked over and over again about our plans.   As the executive team member, sponsor, and driver for this project, I was unable to plan effectively.   I had not allocated resources in time or money, nor had I assembled a project team to work a plan.    I let my team know that we were indeed having a party about two weeks before graduation weekend, at which point they were very excited and began to pitch in wherever they could find a need.  The result was a huge shindig with over fifty guests.  We had great food, fun, and nice weather, but the event exhausted every ounce of energy I had.    Other complications included having to call for additional financial support from my ex-husband.  He was glad to help, but could have forked over the cash earlier if he had known about our plans.   I had also planned to coordinate games for the event, but I ran out of time.  

If I had approached this shindig from project manager’s perspective, I would have known that project management is about planning, organizing, and controlling (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008).   As cited in Lin (2006), Baumgartner (1963) defines project management as the actions involved in producing project deliverable items on time, within cost, with required reliability and performance.  A major part of project kick-off is understanding why the project is being undertaken, determining project outcomes and products, estimating resource requirement, and identifying stakeholders.  Stakeholders include anyone who is affected or interested in your project as a supporter or detractor.   Greer (2010) advises that all stakeholders need to be involved in a project early.  If they are not engaged early, the oversight can cause “re-work.”  As an example, I could have gone to the grocery store once instead of 3 times if I had known that my ex, a supporting stakeholder, could contribute resources.   A budget would have helped as well.  

Concerning planning, a project manager needs to have a good handle on all of the variables that affect a project’s success.  A five finger checklist of these variables includes time, resources, expertise, quality, and scope (Budrovich, n.d.).  Once a project is scoped, changes in either one of these areas necessitate modification in other areas.  If I had scoped the party project, I could have used something similar to a statement of work which is a written confirmation of what a project will produce and the terms and conditions under which the project team will perform the work (Portny et al., 2008).  In a professional organization, it’s generally used to gain project approval.  In this case, I could have used the agreement to let my children know what needed to be accomplished.  The formal agreement would have collectively moved us into a planning phase where our efforts would have been more focused.  Our project team could have allotted more time, resources (human, monetary, and otherwise) to make the event happen, and we could have mapped our plan with a schedule and responsibility matrix, and a communication plan.  In the end, I would have been much less exhausted, and the workload would have been more evenly distributed.    

References

Budrovich, V. (n.d.). Practitioner Voices: Barriers to Project Success [Video].                  Laureate Education. Available from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Lin, H. (2006). Instructional project management: An emerging professional practice for design and training programs. Workforce Education Forum, 33(2). Retrieved from http://voc.ed.psu.edu/projects/publications/books/Fall2006/WEF_fall2006.1.html

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Hello All,

For the next eight weeks I'll be studying Project Management with a focus on Instructional Design.  I'll be posting some assignments to this blog site.   I enjoy healthy debate, so please feel free to comment at any time.