Communicating Effectively

1. Effective Communication

Every project manager must be clear with communications, while still giving stakeholders and team members all the information necessary to make decisions and perform the work needed for a successful project. A project manager should develop and improve their ability to write clearly and communicate face-to-face in an effective way.

A project manager manages meetings to ensure that those desired goals are achieved. To be concise and clear, however, it's important that project managers become intimately familiar with the project information and with effective methods to present this information. They must also understand what the audience needs to know about a project.

To make project materials accessible, a project manager should present complex information using simpler visuals. The proper visual can be a substitute for words, or it can be used to focus on details contained within the words. If you use visuals, the audience must understand what you're presenting.

hint

When speaking or writing, use simple and clear language. Avoid technical jargon that might only be known to a few audience members. If you use an acronym, be sure to explain what the acronym means. Also, avoid academic or overly complex language.

EXAMPLE

There's no reason to say, “The project difficulties were ameliorated with sustained exertion.”, when “We worked hard to fix the issue.” could be used instead.

term to know

Meeting Management

The process of meeting regularly with project team members and or project stakeholders to share information, solve problems and make decisions that will have a positive impact on project success.

2. Delivering Bad News

Often project managers will be called upon to deliver bad news or warn stakeholders of project problems. At those times, it's important the news is delivered to stakeholders in a clear and comfortable way.

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When the news is troubling enough to be communicated beyond the team, the first person to be notified should be the project sponsor. The project manager and the sponsor can then discuss how the information should be delivered to the other stakeholders.

Bad news is best delivered face-to-face in a group setting or one-on-one meetings. Then the project manager can better gauge and manage stakeholder reactions and immediately address questions. The goal of these meetings should be to reduce confusion so informed decisions are reached.

When the issue requires a decision, the project manager should prepare recommendations and inform the meeting attendees of the steps necessary to solve the problem. The project manager should then seek consensus on the solution.

EXAMPLE

Construction on a new home project is going to be delayed two weeks due to issues with the weather. The project manager might present a solution where multiple trades work inside the house at the same time to partially make up the time lost.

When discussing problems, the project manager should avoid placing blame. The discussion should be about the solutions.