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 in shape, not shooting yourself.)

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 the time him.

I told you something and you did what I asked. I wish projects were that easy! Sometimes you, the project manager, have to beg and plead a lot, as I did above, just to get project team members to do what they need 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, right? Communication is difficult. There are two broad categories of communications: written and oral.

the written word

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

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

Suzanne,

Your favorite Project Manager

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

Suzanne,

Your favorite Project Manager

Oh!

Alright, this is an extreme example, but I’d bet bucks on donuts that you added some sarcasm, joke, or comment gone wrong in an email and turned into a big problem. 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 typed message it can have wide ramifications.

say it like you mean it

So if written communication has its challenges, verbal communication must 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, pitch, 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 Olivia Newton-John fans: Let me hear your body speak.) Posture, facial expression, shoulders, ears pulled, arms crossed, 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 believe it is true, you can see why phone calls, streamed video, and teleconferences aren’t as effective as face-to-face meetings.

You’ve been in meetings and witnessed team members’ expressions when you’ve shared good or bad news. And then you’ve reacted to the expressions on their faces, right? She’s tweaked her message to be more clear, asked them 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, to ask for clarification, a deeper understanding and an exact 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. Exit?

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

YOU: That’s all. Go out. Do it.

Being a parrot can be demeaning, especially for Jim, but it’s effective. You can go a little more subtle than what I’ve presented here, asking the audience if they’re clear on the message and then asking questions based on what you’ve 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 form?

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

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

One 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 headers. 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 your project, such as schedules and time responsibilities. The project sponsor and key stakeholders need information on the status of the project, finances, 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 have to address the “when” issue. Depending on the interested parties, the information needs vary between daily, weekly, monthly and “depending on project conditions”. For example, your project sponsor may request weekly status reports, but your project leader may request status reports only once a month.

The secret is to schedule and, if possible, automate the 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 generate reports automatically on a regular schedule. Think about the time you’ll save (and potentially 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 extensive spreadsheets, reports, and executive summaries. Some communication is expected in quick, ad hoc meetings, while other needs might mean business suits and, oh my gosh, PowerPoint slideshows. The point is simple: Give stakeholders the information they need in the way they 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’ve heard this means I have to listen twice as much as I talk. I have to listen to understand and receive the messages they send me.

As a project manager, you have dozens of communication channels. And within his project there are potentially hundreds of communication channels. The larger the project, the greater the opportunity for communications to break down. Here’s a nifty 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 the 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 big 90. Divide that by 2 and you have 45 communication channels. Now ask yourself, “What’s for lunch?” I’m 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.

See how the chances of communication failure just appeared? Scary.

Therefore, to be effective, we must listen to what is being presented to us, what is being discussed in our project team, and what our stakeholders are saying. 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?