By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    data Analytics instagram stories
    Data Analytics Helps Marketers Make the Most of Instagram Stories
    15 Min Read
    analyst,women,looking,at,kpi,data,on,computer,screen
    What to Know Before Recruiting an Analyst to Handle Company Data
    6 Min Read
    AI analytics
    AI-Based Analytics Are Changing the Future of Credit Cards
    6 Min Read
    data overload showing data analytics
    How Does Next-Gen SIEM Prevent Data Overload For Security Analysts?
    8 Min Read
    hire a marketing agency with a background in data analytics
    5 Reasons to Hire a Marketing Agency that Knows Data Analytics
    7 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Over / Under Communication for Project Managers
Share
Notification Show More
Aa
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
Aa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Uncategorized > Over / Under Communication for Project Managers
Uncategorized

Over / Under Communication for Project Managers

Jim MacLennan
Last updated: 2009/06/30 at 1:38 AM
Jim MacLennan
8 Min Read
SHARE
It is often said that you can’t over-communicate, but I’m willing to bet most folks – and especially your project sponsors – underestimate the cost and effort of this critical component of project management. Consider this fair warning – and a good checklist for folks wanting to get into IT, project, or functional management.

Media

To achieve any decent amount of success, you have to be a good communicator with both face-to-face and written/published media.

And by “good” I mean both “comfortable” and “effective.” You should feel good in your own skin, confident that you can carry a conversation at all levels of an organization. And you also have to be an effective communicator – able to get your point across with the right amount of detail, not too much or too little. Another effectiveness challenge is the ability to balance between personalized, one-on-one written and oral communication, and insightful, understandable mass communication.

More Read

big data improves

3 Ways Big Data Improves Leadership Within Companies

IT Is Not Analytics. Here’s Why.
Romney Invokes Analytics in Rebuke of Trump
WEF Davos 2016: Top 100 CEO bloggers
In Memoriam: Robin Fray Carey

Translations

You may not realize how many different “languages” you speak – and effective managers must be reasonably fluent …

  • Languages – Finance, Operations, Sales & Marketing; business groups have just as many confusing specialty words as …

It is often said that you can’t over-communicate, but I’m willing to bet most folks – and especially your project sponsors – underestimate the cost and effort of this critical component of project management. Consider this fair warning – and a good checklist for folks wanting to get into IT, project, or functional management.

Media

To achieve any decent amount of success, you have to be a good communicator with both face-to-face and written/published media.

And by “good” I mean both “comfortable” and “effective.” You should feel good in your own skin, confident that you can carry a conversation at all levels of an organization. And you also have to be an effective communicator – able to get your point across with the right amount of detail, not too much or too little. Another effectiveness challenge is the ability to balance between personalized, one-on-one written and oral communication, and insightful, understandable mass communication.

Translations

You may not realize how many different “languages” you speak – and effective managers must be reasonably fluent …

  • Languages – Finance, Operations, Sales & Marketing; business groups have just as many confusing specialty words as the techies in IT
  • Dialects – Do you speak Oracle or SAPanese? Experienced in small companies or large corporations? Public vs. private? Entrepreneurial or slow growth? High-volume, low-profit FERTs, or low-volume, high-margin custom products? The concepts are all the same, but sometimes the specific words are different.
  • Slang – Slightly different than dialects – all companies, organizations have local shorthand term so that over the years in their particular organization to mean very specific, nuanced things.
  • Sound Bites – A form of speech where a complicated topic is reduced to a single word or phrase, for example, ATP. Are we talking about master data, settings on time fences, the process of checking for availability, or the policies around A, B, C and D companies? Sound bites can sneak into conversations and you could be discoursing for 15 minutes before you realize you’re talking about two vastly different things.
  • Strata – Management v. line, Middle v. executive management. Depending on what level of the organization you’re talking to, you will need to change the level of detail that you go into. Typically, higher up in the company means a lower level of detail that they want to wade through.

Change Management

Volumes have been written on this topic, but most people have trouble coming up with a concise definition of what this means. To oversimplify – but drive right to point: change management is typically about delivering “bad news.”

However, “bad” can mean different things. It can be “disappointment”: the date will slip, we’re over budget, or we can’t fit this feature request into the schedule. However, adjusting expectations as early as possible is one of the basic skills of a good project manager. You need to be willing to deliver bad news like this as early as possible.

The other significant area of “bad” – walking into an organization, a group of people, or a individual’s cube, and letting them know that the way they have been doing things for years is about to change. Sure, it’s easy to say that “change is hard” and “change is inevitable,” but you yourself probably don’t like change in your established rituals. Empathy is the key here.

Lessons Learned

As with many other things, the more project communication you do, the better you get. Some of the more common lessons learned:

  • Defensive project teams will often negotiate for delay by asking for / waiting for More Communication, and complaining about Not Enough Communication
  • In any project plan, you will underestimate the time required for communication, the number of times you’ll have to repeat the message, and the ability of the team to consume your communication in various forms of delivery media
  • You will definitely underestimate the time required for follow-up and follow-through to make sure it’s done.
  • You will overestimate the amount and quality of existing documentation, and the ability of the project team to bridge the gap to the required level of documentation

Here’s the killer –

  • If you try explaining to management about the problems/challenges of communication, they won’t listen and/or won’t understand (yes, that is a tight loop)

Machines will never replace us – but this is one case where sometimes, you might wish they could.

Previously …

  • Communicating Complex Technical Concepts (March 21, 2005)
  • Euphemisms, and a career-extending paradox (July 11, 2005)
  • Finding shapes in the fog – How to frame a wispy, wandering conversation (September 7, 2005)
  • Three Best TLAs of all time, the hegemony of Excel, and the Intuitive Front End (August 12, 2006)
  • War Stories from the Change Management front (August 21, 2006)
  • Communication is the responsibility of … (August 19, 2007)
  • The Five Fundamental Rules of Project Management (October 15, 2007)
  • Butting In to the Conversation: PM Communication Tools (February 26, 2008)
  • There ain’t much IT in IT Management (May 7, 2008)
  • Can you, should you, bother Executives with The Details? (May 30, 2008)
  • More On Executives (are Smarter than You Think; the 5 Biggest Misconceptions) (June 12, 2008)
  • The Power of Paper in Business Communications (October 22, 2008)
  • A Plea for Empathetic Communication (November 16, 2008)
  • I Think I’m Learning SAPanese … (November 22, 2008)

Technorati Tags: communication, documentation, Knowledge Management, people management, PMO, project management, tech management,

Invisible Technorati Tags:
cazh1, James P. MacLennan, jpmacl, MacLennan,

Jim MacLennan June 30, 2009
Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
Share
By Jim MacLennan
Follow:
Jim MacLennan is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at IDEX Corporation, a Fortune 1000 manufacturer that sells highly engineered products in a variety of markets worldwide. MacLennan has responsibility for Corporate IT services for all IDEX business units, and also drives innovation through initiatives that leverage Information and Technology as growth drivers for the industrial manufacturing space. He regularly publishes his observations and insights on the intersection of business and technology - check out his work at www.cazh1.com.

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

smart home data
7 Mind-Blowing Ways Smart Homes Use Data to Save Your Money
Big Data
ai low code frameworks
AI Can Help Accelerate Development with Low-Code Frameworks
Artificial Intelligence
data Analytics instagram stories
Data Analytics Helps Marketers Make the Most of Instagram Stories
Analytics
data breaches
How Hospital Security Breaches Devastate Local Communities
Policy and Governance

Stay Connected

1.2k Followers Like
33.7k Followers Follow
222 Followers Pin

You Might also Like

big data improves
Big DataJobsKnowledge ManagementUncategorized

3 Ways Big Data Improves Leadership Within Companies

6 Min Read
Image
Uncategorized

IT Is Not Analytics. Here’s Why.

7 Min Read

Romney Invokes Analytics in Rebuke of Trump

4 Min Read

WEF Davos 2016: Top 100 CEO bloggers

14 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

ai in ecommerce
Artificial Intelligence for eCommerce: A Closer Look
Artificial Intelligence
AI and chatbots
Chatbots and SEO: How Can Chatbots Improve Your SEO Ranking?
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Exclusive

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?