Communicating Effectively: Considering Different Methods

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.