In this week’s readings we learned about how important
effective communication can be when leading a project management team. Portny et al (2008) tell us ‘both written and
verbal communications - as well as
informal and formal communications – are useful, meaningful ways to share and
collect important project information’ (Portny et al, 2008, p. 357). We examined some communication between project
team members and looked at the same words of communication in three different
formats: email, voicemail and face-to-face conversation. The words communicated were as follows:
“Hi Mark,
I know you have been
busy and possibly in that all day meeting today, but I really need an ETA on
the missing report. Because your report
contains data I need to finish my report, I might miss my own deadline if I
don’t get your report soon. Please let
me know when you think you can get your report sent over to me, or even if you
can send the data I need in a separate email.
I really appreciate your
help.
Jane”
It was interesting to consider how I perceived each message
in the different formats.
As an email:
I found this communication to be polite, concise and to the
point. There was a sense of urgency, so
if I were the recipient I would understand the need to act promptly. The fact
that the document is in writing means that this communication is on record and
there is a need for me to, at minimum, respond to the email with a reason for
the tardiness and an expected date of completion.
As a voicemail:
I found this communication brought a sense of urgency. I interpreted her tone of voice to be
assertive and I would feel the need to get the information to her ASAP. However, I personally am quite forgetful of
phone call conversations if I am in the middle of another task and I think that
although this method is useful for creating the urgency, it is useful to have the
message in writing to refer back to at a later time.
Face to Face:
In this conversation, Jane uses a pleasant and friendly tone
and body language, which is helpful in creating team morale. I did, however, feel there was a much less
sense of urgency and so if I had several other important documents to prepare, I
wouldn't necessarily rush.
I learned a lot from this exercise and feel the form of
communication that indicated the most urgency was from the voicemail as I could
hear the tone of her voice and was unable to use any visual cues to read her
facial expression and body language. The
method that I believe would be most useful in producing the information the fastest
would be email, as I would feel accountable, as the communication has been
recorded. The face-to-face method would
put me most at ease, as there did not appear to be negative feelings about my
tardiness.
Each person interprets body language and tone differently
and different people work best with different methods of communication. This shows the need to really know your team. Portny et al (2008) tell us that a project
manager can use several approaches to hold people accountable, including putting
the information in writing and being specific (p. 300). I think the most effective method of
communication would be using a combination of two of the above, being sure to
use email as a follow-up to one of the others.
Reference:
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.
