Communicating in a project environment
Projects operate in a fast changing environment where internal and external pressures impact on milestones, outputs and delivery schedule. As the information flows, the urgency of decision grows and influence the way you communicate with your senior project stakeholders. In such a context the communication overload can lead to key messages being misinterpreted or missed entirely by the recipient.
Individuals differ in the way they prefer to receive and process information by: social styles, cultural backgrounds, and a limited availability of their time. Therefore it can be challenging to communicate complex information to your senior stakeholders can be challenging when required to update and present proposed project approaches. It is your responsibility to engage with your stakeholders in a simple, succinct and clear manner to address these challenges.
Planning your communication
When communicating first consider the characteristics, needs and wants of your audience, the objectives of your communication, and the key messages you want to bring to the table. As objectives you may consider: achievements to pursue (decision, input or commentary), context to provide, advice-seeking, confidentiality. At the same time, your key messages may include: project update, status report, risk escalation, design documents or project approach.
Depending on audience, objectives and key messages you want to convey you should consider the most appropriate format.
Techniques to distill complex messages
In order to summarize complex messages, there are a number of techniques you can adopt to distill information into clear concise and simple messages:
1. Brainstorming a topic using spider diagrams
Used in brainstorming of ideas, it helps you “compartmentalize” a topic into its sub-topics. We recommend it to develop presentations or outline a point of view.
Tips for spider diagram:
? Start in the center writing the topic, question or issue you are trying to communicate
? Work from the center out and list key sub-themes linked to the topic by a line
? Group by themes and sub-themes and use highlighting or colors to focus attention on particular areas
? Use the outputs to help you identify your key message groupings and high-level themes
2. Developing presentation or single frame
Also referred to as a “single PowerPoint slide”, is an effective way to summarize the essence of a message into a single page. Consider using single frames in the following situations: summary of project progress, outline of several options with advantages and disadvantages or any other topic that requires discussion.
Tips for single frames:
? Short introduction to the context of the topic
? Clear upfront objectives
? Use colors and formats to engage the audience
? Use tables and diagrams to summarize information
? Ensure that your “ask” or final conclusion is prominently displayed
3. Using “storyboarding” to tell a clear and concise story
It enables the team to thoroughly map out the story, by defining the objectives, titles and key messages for each slide or section. The approach mitigates the risk of potential confusion for the audience and increases efficiency for the project team. Once the structure and high-level messaging defined, follows the storyboard review with team members when concerns and comments can be gathered and addressed earlier in the process.
Tips for storyboarding:
? Consider 80:20 rule – spend sufficient time on planning the story and flow and then dive into content
? Challenge the story throughout the structuring process
? Build the structure in the intended presentation format PowerPoint or Word
? Focus on drafting the top line messages or initial text for each slide only
? Include any required comments in colored boxes
? Once completed your storyboard, try to get someone unrelated to have a look
? Review the storyboard with your project leadership or superiors to validate.
To successfully fulfill your tasks and complete a project you should communicate clearly. Functioning as a conveyor belt, communication facilitates objectives transmission leading to the right decisions and the expected results. The clarity of the messages you deliver impacts on the quality of the relationships with the senior project stakeholders. Project managers assign 90% of their time to communicating and manufacturing the consent to respond challenges. 65% of the projects miss their objectives because of the ineffective communication and business case formulation. In this article we provided simple and impactful techniques to help you: turn complex messages into action in the most effective way, build strong relationships with senior project stakeholders, and increase your project success rate.
