There is an unattributed saying that Project Management is 80 percent communication. Maybe it’s true. It is certainly true in spirit. So, what are the absolute basics you need to know about Project Communication?
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The Audience for Project Communications
Project Communications three primary audience groups:
- Your Project Team
These will require day-to-day communication as a vital part of your team leadership. - The Governance Tiers of Your Project
Their primary needs will be to understand the status and the work you are doing. Project reporting and project meetings – formal and informal – are your main ways of doing this. - The Project’s Stakeholders
(both internal and external to your organization)
As a Project Manager, you need to ensure that you communicate effectively with all of these three constituencies. In this video, however, we’ll focus on stakeholder communication.
Four Components of Project Communications
1. Strategy
For each stakeholder group, what do you need to achieve with your communications with them? Do you need to prioritize them and their needs or the project and its needs? Ideally, these will overlap, but you may choose a strategy that is
Accommodating
You will make substantial concessions to the stakeholder to achieve the core intent.
Collaborating
You will aim to work together with the stakeholder to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
Consulting
You’ll want to Understand their perspectives and be open to compromise.
Informing
You will want open sharing of information
Promotional
You will use promotional and persuasive tactics to influence stakeholders positively.
Defensive
You will resist compromise and make strong counter-arguments to stakeholders’ perceptions.
Assertive
You’ll be prepared to fight hard to optimize the position of the project or organization.
2. Plan
Once you know what you need to achieve with each stakeholder or stakeholder group, the next step is to consider how to do this. Typically, each key stakeholder will have a whole plan for the different approaches you’ll take and the messages you need to deliver. This will span the project and the emphasis will likely shift from phase to phase.
For lower-priority stakeholders – and those in large groups (‘broadcast stakeholders’), you may have a simpler plan. But, the elements of planning any one communication will be similar. We have a full video on creating a communications plan, but in summary:
- Theme/Objectives: What is this communication about and what do you want to achieve with it?
- Topic/Message: What is the message you need to impart to them?
- Target: Which stakeholder or stakeholders need to receive this communication or set of communications,
- Tone: What tone of voice would best achieve your objective? Are you going to be inquiring or informing, testing or telling, consulting or commanding, influencing or instructing?
- Tool/Media: What medium will you use to get your message out? Choose tools that are appropriate to your stakeholders and the message.
- Timing: When should the messages go out? This can be a specific date or a frequency for regular cycles of communication.
- Test/Feedback: How will you know that your messages have been received, understood, and acted upon? This is about getting feedback, and preparing to receive it.
- Teller/Responsibility: Who will be responsible for crafting the message, reviewing it, and ensuring it goes out properly?
Effective project communication will bring together the right match of message and medium to the receiver and their context.
And remember…
Face-to-Face Beats Any other Form of Communication
Clearly, face-to-face communication, in a shared language, is best. But it’s not always possible, and there are alternatives:
- Remote in-person
– phone, video call - Written
– text, illustrations, numerical, tabular - Combined
– for example, chat streams like Slack
There are plenty of technologies to support all of these. But, we don’t need to cover them here.
3. Delivery
Part of your social and political calculation will always be the right level of formality to optimize the impact and efficacy of your communication. This can range from:
- Informal, via
- Formal, to
- Official – and therefore regulated by policy or law
In all of these, there are a number of considerations, beyond the message itself and the medium you use. These are the meta-messages that carry information at a political and psychological level. Examples include the:
- Tone you convey
The tone of voice – either oral or written – conveys subtle levels of assertiveness, for example. - Choice of words
Different words can mean much the same thing but the choice you make carries implications. - Non-verbal signals
In-person, this is about body language and gesture. Remotely, its about choices like the stationery you choose and how you format a document.
Specialist Forms of Communication
There are also a number of specialist forms of communication that Project Professionals need to learn and master. These include:
- Conflict Management
- Negotiation
- Influencing and Persuading
- Meeting Management
- Networking and Political Awareness
4. Response
Finally, as well as your planned communications – which can be one- or two-way, you will also receive incoming communication from stakeholders and your governance tier.
As a minimum, you need a process for:
- logging incoming calls, emails, and other messages
- ensuring that the right person gets them
- they get a response – which you may also need to record
For important stakeholders, it can be helpful to allocate members of the project team to be the first contact for each of them, with an alternate point of contact for when that team member is unavailable.
Another approach can be to have a dedicated communications team within the project. This is typical in large projects with a big ‘political’ impact. I use inverted commas here, because this may not be capital-P politics. Certainly, some projects have a high profile or a big social or community impact. For these, you may even contract a specialist communications or public relations (PR) agency.
Learn More about Project Communications
Stakeholder communication is a big subject – and one I could write a whole book on. In fact, I did.
If you want to learn more, check out my 2014 book, ‘The Influence Agenda: A Systematic Approach to Aligning Stakeholders in Times of Change’. It is published by Palgrave and you can get a copy anywhere that you buy your books.
Recommended Videos to Help with Project Communications
Carefully curated video recommendations for you:
- Project Communication: Stop Using Telegrams – Get Better Project Results | Video
- How to Build a Great Project Communications Plan | Video
- What is Metcalfe’s Law? Counting Communication Channels
- How to Communicate Big Ideas with Maximum Impact | Video
- How to Make Your Message Memorable | Video
- Challenging Communication Tips for Better Project Communication | Video
Recommended Articles to Help with Project Communications
- How to Get Project Communications Management Right… Every Time
- Boost Your Team’s Success with 10 Effective Team Communication Tips
- Visual Communication for Better Project Results
- Communication Skills for Project Managers | The Best Books
What Kit Does a Project Manager Need?
I asked Project Managers in a couple of forums what material things you need to have, to do your job as a Project Manager. They responded magnificently. I compiled their answers into a Kit list. I added my own.
Check out the Kit a Project Manager needs
Note that the links are affiliated.
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For more of our videos in themed collections, join our Free Academy of Project Management.
