Project Communications

The communications of a project include all means and manners that the project interacts with all its stakeholders. This not only includes the standard, formal communication items such as:

• Status reports
• Progress review meetings
• Kickoff meetings
• Executive reports
• Presentations
• Financial reports
• Government (or external agency) reports
• Issue logs
• Risk logs
• Change request logs
• Role-responsibility matrix
• Project organization chart
• Any project meeting (in any form/option)
• Any project deliverable
• Project collaboration tools

But can also include organizational change management communications such as:

• Project name/identity
• Project website (portal)
• Enterprise social networking platforms
• Organizational change management plan
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) references
• Awareness campaigns
• Newsletters
• Public relation notices
• Roadshows
• One-on-one meetings with key stakeholders

Although the nature of your individual project (number and type of stakeholders, location of stakeholders, and overall project risk level) dictates how many of these elements are part of your project, the next set of project communications are included on every project, and are likely the most important part of project communications: the day-to-day, interpersonal communications that occur between the project team and the project stakeholders. These include interactions in the following forms, plus others:

• Face-to-face
• Telephone
• Email
• Instant messaging (individual or group)
• Voice mail
• Texting
• Conferencing (audio, web, or video)
• Meetings

Project communications are not only important for the obvious reason- keeping
individual stakeholders properly and consistently informed on the status, progress, and impact of the project—they are a key determinant factor to the overall success of the project due to following reasons:

Managing expectations- The quality and effectiveness of your communications will have a tremendous impact on stakeholder perceptions regarding the project and your role as a leader.

Managing the project team—Your ability to communicate is the prominent factor affecting how well you manage and lead the core project team.

Reducing conflicts—There are enough challenges executing your average project with the customary time, fiscal, and resource constraints without adding unnecessary conflicts that result from wrong perceptions, lack of information, or non-existent issues. All of which result from ineffective
communications.

Saving grace—Every solid project manager knows there are two skills that will carry him in almost any project situation: organization and communication. Being excellent in these areas, especially project communications, will compensate for shortcomings in almost every other area.

Communication is the fuel that drives project success, and the mishandling of it is a top five reason why projects struggle. Let’s make sure we understand why we cannot take communications for granted. On one hand, we know instinctively that there are many factors that impact the communications process—primarily because we live it every waking minute. On the other hand, many of us don’t seem to incorporate this reality into how we communicate. The goal of any communication is to have the receiver end up with an understanding (resulting perception) that equals the meaning intended by the sender (intended message). Let’s take a look at the seven key principles employed by most effective project communicators:

Plan your communications - The goal of communications planning is to ensure that all the stakeholders involved in the project have the information they need, when they need it, to fulfill their responsibilities. The key factors that affect communications planning and the communication requirements for a project include the following:

• Sponsoring organizational structure
• Results of stakeholder analysis
• Reporting relationships
• Functional areas involved in the project
• Number of people involved in the project
• Physical location of the project stakeholder
• Information needs of each stakeholder
• Experience level of project team members
• Availability of technology
• Immediacy and frequency of information needs
• Desired form of project communications
• Expected length of the project
• Organizational risk level of project
• Expected change impact on end users
• Organizational culture
• Level of external communications needed
• Procurement contracts
• Any constraints advised by legal counsel

After the specific communication requirements are determined for your project, make sure to do these two things:

1. Document this information in a project communications management plan.
2. Ensure that all formal project communications (and the work to produce them) is included in the WBS and project schedule.

Remember the basics - The three most powerful communication techniques are also the simplest. They work and most people don’t do them, so the contrast is very noticeable.

• Make it a high priority—Don’t shortcut project communications; show respect for stakeholders.
• Use your manners—Be polite; show appreciation and gratitude.
• Follow-through—If you say you are going to do something, do it.

Five Cs of communication - Keep the five Cs in mind when composing or delivering any project communication:

1. Clear - State the subject; stay on subject; hold the receiver’s hand through the message; use appropriate terms.
2. Concise - Get to the point; limit scope of the message.
3. Courteous - Be polite; watch your tone.
4. Consistent - Use appropriate tone, medium for intended message; all message elements should support intended meaning.
5. Compelling - Give them a reason to pay attention.

Take responsibility for understanding - This hits at the mindset you need for effective communications. Key points include the following:

• Invest the effort, patience, and determination to make sure you are clearly understood.
• Employ effective listening skills to ensure you have clearly understood what the other person has intended.
• Use the communication medium that is the best fit for the intended audience. Be flexible.
• Tailor your communications content to best fit the information needs of each target audience (project team, customers, senior management, or personnel management).
• Pay attention. Notice the feedback. If what you are doing is not working, be willing to adjust.
• Don’t assume understanding—always clarify, ask questions, verify. Focus on taking the other person’s perspective in all communications.

Build relationships - Effective communicators know that the bridge between people is built upon trust, rapport, and personal connection. Be eager and willing to invest the time to build one-on-one relationships with your key stakeholders, especially early in the project. In addition, a relationship focus helps create an open and honest environment, which is better suited for dealing with natural project challenges.

Be proactive - Your enemies in project communications are surprise, doubt, and uncertainty. Per the communications plan, keep your targeted audiences informed on a consistent basis. Anticipate any additional information needs. Never leave stakeholders wondering or needing to call you first.

People and politics go together - Effective communicators demonstrate an understanding and
savviness for the political nature of the project environment. They understand the political implications of any potential communication and make sure to look at it from other perspectives before delivering the intended message.

Here I am ending this post and in the next post we shall discuss best practices used by effective project communicators.