The Art of Effective Communication
Communication is still considered a high value item that any project manager must be able to use to be effective. Most projects will live or die due to the success of communication. Managers are will either be promoted or fired depending on how effective they are with this specialized tool. A major part of any PM duties is to keep senior leadership with status of the project (Portny, 2008). Even a bigger part is that communication is being used in so many different ways, PM will need to stay abreast with all the diverse media in order to communication with his team and management. Watching, listening and reading “The Art of Effective Communication” gave a glimpse of some of the different ways to correspond with your co-workers. Each media (email, voicemail, & Face to Face) gave me a prospective on each tool and how it can be more effective.
Email is probably the most use form of communication in the world. In the 20 years I have put in the Air Force, it’s amazing how much a modest task as giving a simple order has gone from face to face to reading your email. Military leadership has encourage the folks from the old generation to embrace the new form as communication as it has allow us multitask more and get more accomplished at a short time (PDG, 2009). They key was to embrace but not forget how human interaction is important. As project managers, we must take into consideration the subject of the email and whether it can give the reader clear and concise instructions on what the goal of the email is. This falls more into the formal communication where the main purpose of the message is to get the readers attention on the task at hand and what is needed from them and timeframe of when this task needs to be completed (Portny, 2008).
Voicemail is the one media most people hate to use. Primarily due to its informal nature and the difficulty of getting the proper message across. This tool is used just to get the listener a small message of what is needed and majority of the time, the person giving the message will ask for some confirmation of this message. Verification is the most important detail as it’s the only way the reader will know if the listener got and understand the message.
Face-to-Face is the old school way to get your message across. This tool is the best tool for any PM who wants to ensure their message, instructions and suspense’s are given and understood. During the program, “The Art of Effective Communication”, Face-to-Face was the only media where the message was clearly given and understood from the reader how important these tasks were. One would only hope that any PM would primarily use this media as it will not only give validation of the message being delivered but also be able to read your employees as it will allow the PM to interact and clear any misconceptions they might have. The Art of Effective Communication has given us a quick guideline on all the different tools used in communication and maybe just give use an understanding how to use each one effectively.
Hermes Sanchez
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.
Professional Development Guide(PDG). (2009). In Professional Development Guide (AFP 36-2241), Washington DC:
Great post. I do agree the variety methods of communication has drastic change even in my own span of time (40s years). Your posting reminded me of the PM considering the different modality of communicating with the team members. Dr. Stolovtich points out that communication is not just words (Stolovitch, 2010). Especially when communicating with someone face to face other factors come into play such as nonverbal communication, tone, and body language. Depending of the circumstance, the PM must decide of this best method in delivering information to the team members. Based on the different communication we were presented with: email, audio, and face to face I noticed barriers between the modalities. For instance in the email incident, the PM must consider the tone and word usage in conveying a message. I noticed the repeated use of the word need as a way to stress the time urgency of the information. A barrier I found would be the receiver truly understand the message. In the audio, I pointed out the tonality of the voice and word stresses used. Again a barrier would be clarity in the interpreted information. Finally in the face to face the importance of factors I listed previously are important to consider. A barrier may be tracking down that person or meeting on mutual times. All in all the PM must be clear and concise when communicating with the team members to avoid any miscommunication. Follow ups with written documentation and sign offs are means to remedy any mishaps.
ReplyDeleteReference
Stolovitch (2012) Communicating with Stakeholders [video]. Retrieved from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6290461&Survey=1&47=8115912&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Great information and post!
ReplyDeleteI agree that email is probably the most use form of communication in the world. In my opinion, it is convenient, ensures recipient receipt of message and effective written communication skills are imperative to have. For example, as a qualification for employment, applicants and existing employees must prove written communication skills, they are offering business-writing workshops. Communicating f2f is becoming secondary its either email or webinars.
Hermes,
DeleteYou are absolutely correct! Email is most definitely the most commonly used method of communication. However, face to face communication is the best method for the message to be clear. Another colleague mentioned the use of email in addition to (following) a verbal conversation. In this way, the words are still in writing and therefore a clear paper trail is in place.
Noelle