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Real World Project Management – Communications

Have you ever been on the side of the conversation where all you heard was a voice like Charlie Brown’s teacher? “Wa-wa-waa-wwaa.” (It would be fun if you saw more Charlie Brown.)

But what about listening to your date? Yada yada blah blah Cubs game blah blah beer blah blah pizza.

Or what happens when your favorite project team member walks into your office. He says, “Hi. I have a real problem that I could use some help with. I’m having a hard time understanding the project requirements in this deliverable.” And you hear, “Blah blah blah problem blah blah difficult blah.”

It’s not that you don’t want to understand your date or your project team member, it’s just that you’re not listening. You’ve got a ton of things running through your head, you’re focused on seven different projects, and the baseball steroid hearings were so terrifying that you can’t decide how your fantasy baseball league will play out. (That’s getting fit, not shooting.)

Communication, as you can see from the above, is more than just talking. Communication is also listening. When it comes to project management, communication takes up 90% of a project manager’s time. That’s right, 90% of his time.

I told you something and you did as I asked. I wish projects were this easy! Sometimes you, the project manager, have to beg and plead a lot, like I did above, just to get project team members to do what they’re supposed to do. You know what needs to be done and you need to transfer that knowledge to your project team members. And then they’re going to do it.

Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Real communication is about transferring knowledge. You know something and you tell someone else, and then they know. But it doesn’t always work that way, does it? Communication is difficult. There are two broad categories of communications: written and oral.

the written word

Written material, like this article, can come across as straightforward. I write. My editor edits. You read. But what if I am not clear in my writing? What if you don’t get my jokes? Or is my grammar and punctuation so bad that you miss the point? Communication fails.

This is also true in your life. Imagine that you sent an email to Susan, a member of the team. Here is a draft of the email from her:

Suzanne,

I need a project team member who knows what Oracle is all about. You are smart, talented, punctual and cunning. Team members who are not like you admit to knowing nothing about Oracle. Our project sucks when you’re not around. This project is going very well.

Better,

Your favorite Project Manager

wow! Susan sounds fantastic. But is that what you really wanted to say to Susan? What if her score was so bad that Susan got the wrong message? This is what you meant:

Suzanne,

I need a project team member who knows what Oracle is. Everyone in you is a smart, talented, punctual and knowledgeable team member who is not like you. Admit you know nothing about Oracle! Our project is horrible. When you’re away, this project goes great.

Better,

Your favorite Project Manager

Oh!

Okay, this is an extreme example, but I’d bet donuts dollars that you added a bit of sarcasm, a joke, or a comment that went wrong in an email message and it became a big deal. The point is that written communication has its challenges within a project. Email is great. I love it and use it every day, but when the message is blurred in any written message it can have wide ramifications.

Say it like you mean it

So if written communication has its challenges, verbal communication has to be great, right? We know better. Think back to your teenage days, when your parents said it’s not what you say, but how you say it. Well, that’s what my dad would tell me. And, as always, he was right.

Dad was talking to me, teaching me, about paralingual communications. Paralingual describes the pitch, tone, and inflections in the speaker’s voice that affect the message. Can you think of all the different ways a project team member might say, “Sure. I’ll get to work.” I bet you’ve heard them all.

And then there’s the non-verbal communication, all that body language. (For fans of Olivia Newton-John: Let me hear your body talk.) Posture, facial expression, shoulders, pulling ears, crossed arms, hand signals accentuate or respond to the message you are hearing.

Ready for another stat? Good. About 55% of all communication is non-verbal. If this is true, and I think it is, you can see why phone calls, streaming video, and teleconferences aren’t as effective as face-to-face meetings.

You’ve been in meetings and witnessed the expressions on team members’ faces when you’ve shared good or bad news. And then you’ve reacted to the expressions on their faces, right? She’s modified her message to be clearer, asked if they have a fucking problem, continued her spiel because they’re nodding in agreement with you.

To be clear, and I want to be clear, a verbal message is affected by three main things:

the message itself

Paralinguistic attributes of the message

Non-verbal communication

To be a great communicator you need experience. To be an effective communicator, you must ask questions. You understand me? Questions help the project team, the audience, your quote, ask for clarification, deeper understanding, and accurate transfer of knowledge.

One approach, sometimes called “parroting,” requires the speaker to ask the project team to repeat the message in their own words. For example:

YOU: We have to have this app developed by the end of the week or everyone is fired. Now, Jim, tell me what this means.

JIM: Are you an idiot?

YOU: No, you’re fired. Departure?

SALLY: We have to have this software developed by Friday or we’ll join Jim at Wal-Mart.

YOU: That’s all. Leave. Do it.

Being a parrot can be demeaning, especially for Jim, but it’s effective. It can be a bit more subtle than what I have presented here, asking the audience if they are clear on the message and then asking questions based on what you have presented.

But what about planning?

Thanks for asking. Of course you have to plan to communicate. Communication planning boils down to this key question: Who needs what information, when do they need it, and in what modality?

Who needs what? This addresses two main problems in any project. “Who” describes the stakeholders with whom you and your project team need to communicate. “What” describes the information they will need.

Not all stakeholders will need the same information. Sure, that sounds obvious, but have you ever met one of those asshole project managers (yes, the guy a few buckets away from you) who sends all the project information to everyone who’s ever heard of it? ? This guy thinks he’s covering all his bases because everyone has all the information. The problem with this approach is the same problem with giving your cat the entire bag of cat food at once: only give him what he needs or things will get messy.

A tool that can help the project manager and project team determine who needs to be involved in communications is a simple communication matrix. A communication matrix is ​​a table of all project stakeholders in both row and column headings. A mark at the intersection of the two stakeholders represents that these two stakeholders will need to communicate.

The hard part, the planning part, is determining what information is needed between the two stakeholders. Usually the main communication needs will be obvious; functional managers need to know information related to their employees on their project, such as schedules and time responsibility. The project sponsor and key stakeholders need information about the status of the project, financials, and any variances in cost and time. You will need to work with your project team and stakeholders to determine the most involved communication demands.

You’ll also need to address the “when” issue. Depending on the stakeholders, the information needs vary between daily, weekly, monthly and “according to the conditions of the project”. For example, your project sponsor may request weekly status reports, but the project leader may request status reports only once a month.

The secret is to schedule and, if possible, automate communication demands as much as possible. Yes, automaton. If your project management information system is worth a lot, you can create macros, templates, and even automatically generate reports on a regular schedule. Think of the time you’ll save (and can invest in your fantasy baseball league) by automating communications. Many project managers I know don’t automate, don’t schedule, and don’t use a communication matrix. And then these project managers forget who needs what and when they need it. And then everyone complains. Please.

Now the mode. Some communications can be accomplished in a quick email. Others require an extensive spreadsheet, reports, and executive summaries. Some communication is expected in quick, ad hoc meetings, while other necessities may mean business suits and, gosh, PowerPoint slideshows. The point is simple: Give stakeholders the information they need in the form they’ll expect.

Communication is also listening

Time to shut up. He has planned the communications and is now following his plan. But you have to listen to what is said. I don’t know about you, but I have two ears and one mouth. I heard that this means that I should listen twice as much as I speak. I have to listen to understand and receive the messages that are sent to me.

As a project manager, you have dozens of communication channels. And within the project there are potentially hundreds of communication channels. The larger the project, the greater the opportunity for communications to break down. Here’s a clever formula to show you how many opportunities there are for communication to fail: (N*(N-1))/2. That’s N times N-1 divided by 2. N represents all key stakeholders.

Do you want to try it? Let’s say we have a project with 10 stakeholders, including you, the project manager. That would be 10 times 9, a whopping 90. Divide that by 2 and you have 45 communication channels. Now ask yourself, “What’s for lunch?” I am sorry. Ask yourself, “How many stakeholders are there in my project?” A lot, I bet.

Go ahead and try this formula in one of your projects. I will wait.

Do you see how the possibilities of communication failure have just appeared? Scary.

Therefore, to be effective, we must listen to what is presented to us, what is discussed in our project team, and what our stakeholders are told. You, the project manager, must be at the center of communications; you have to be the center of communications.

Now, do you think communication takes up 90% of a project manager’s time?

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