The Power of Communication
One of the beautiful aspects of project management is the ability to communicate effectively with so many people all working to achieve a common goal. On the flip side, it can be a challenge for those same reasons. Believe it or not project management consists of 90% communication. Ultimately, as the leader of the project, you want to make sure information is communicated and understood. Here are a few surefire ways to leverage best practices and not have your projects get lost in translation.
Does Your Team Lack Overall Awareness?
The Dilemma
You are leading a project and you gather details from different workstreams; however, some teams are not aware of the progress made by other teams. There are a few questions swirling on weekly status. You may have communicated this multiple times verbally in a number of meetings.
The Solution
Do not fret! A simple solution to this situation is creating a dashboard that gathers all highlights and key updates of the project in a given week. Projects have so many moving parts that teams need a narrowed focus on the latest updates. Dashboards usually consist of, but are not limited to the following:
Project status
Milestones
Key highlights
Open/closed issues
Upcoming tasks
Oftentimes, dashboards are created in project management tools (Microsoft Project, SmartSheet etc.) innate to the company. This can also be created in platforms like PowerPoint.
Do You Need to Cast a Wide Net of Communication?
The Dilemma
As the shepherd of the project a lot of people come to you for answers. There may come a time you notice an influx in emails requesting updates. You may find that some teammates are left out of the loop in real time updates.
The Solution
If some of your key players are not actually in the starting communication line-up try setting up or request creation of an email distribution list. This is a stress reliever for project teams, but more so you as the leader. Having all core team members on that one email list will save you time when sending out communications, especially if you have a large team. If it makes sense, also set-up workstream distribution lists if the communication to these teams are more targeted.
Are Your Meetings Productive?
The Dilemma
Does it feel like critical project updates are not quite getting answered. Does it feel like teams are not sure what the takeaways are after the meeting. Are some of your team conversations derailed and go off on a tangent?
The Solution
Set up frequent project meetings with an agenda and takeaways once the meeting is completed. Ultimately, those takeaways become tasks for your project plan later. For the purpose of communication, this helps keep the team aligned and not deviate from the meeting goal.
In Conclusion
Overall, all these components plus more can be addressed in a communication plan. Having a communication plan will help in developing a better communication pattern with your team. This will rid the team of any confusion. In the full communication plan you will have a cohesive strategy to engage stakeholders, core team, and other lines of business important to your project.