When working as a manager of an instructional design project, it is extremely important to establish and implement (and continuously improve) communication channels with all stakeholders. “A project fraught with communication problems leads to delays, misunderstandings, frustration, [and] workplace conflicts…”(Sharma, 2010).
Effective communication is vital to the success of any project. Project managers can communicate with stakeholders through written communications such as email, instant messaging, memoranda and reports. Verbal communication methods include face-to-face dialogues and recorded messages. Within the realm of verbal communication is interactive communication, where individuals can interact with each other in real time.
You may be wondering which method of communication is best for a given situation or purpose. Well, generally speaking and for most situations, interactive communication (face-to-face) is best. For example, this week in my instructional design course I was asked to review a message in three different modalities: as written text in an email, as audio in a telephone message, and as a video (simulated) face-to-face message. As you might imagine, the video delivery method was most effective for me for a number of reasons including:
1. I was able to observe the other person’s facial and body expressions making the communication more authentic, sincere and earnest.
2. Observing the person while simultaneously listening to the message made the entire experience seem “real” and I wanted to provide the information requested because of the “reality” of the message.
3. Because of the other person’s physical presence (albeit virtual) I felt more of a ‘sense of urgency’ than with the other communication delivery methods. (In the message, the other person was asking for some needed data in order to complete a report which was quickly approaching its deadline.)
Many types of written communication are considered “push” delivery methods because they are presented to (or pushed to) stakeholders. The push method is effective as well, and often, is the most efficient way to reach a larger audience. For example, sending a written progress report to all the stakeholders of a large, complex project may take considerably less time to deliver than setting up and conducting a formal meeting and discussing the project’s progress. Back to my assignment…when I read the assigned message in email form, although I understood it, the tone seemed almost apologetic. I don’t believe the intent of the message was to be apologetic. Right away then, you can see how one communication method differs from another in how its message is received and interpreted.
Lastly, I would like to mention the telephone message, which is effective as well as it is a form of verbal communication. But, even if effective, recorded voice messages are not the most effective as we’ve already learned. With recorded voice, or audio, there is more of an element of authenticity than in written communication because the voice on the other end is human and real. However, recorded messages are not heard in real-time, and thus cannot offer the benefits of interactivity. For my assignment, when I listened to the recorded message, I believe that I did understand the message as it was communicated, by that I mean I understood the urgency of the message. Because there was no interactivity, I could not clarify with the other person the full intent of the message—I was forced to use my own discretion as to what the message actually meant. A disadvantage? Perhaps…but not in this assignment.
References:
Sharma, R. (2010) Effective Communication Methods in Project Communications Management. Retrieved November 18, 2010 from: http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/85785.aspx
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Project "Post-Mortem"
I used to work as a full-time staff member of a small, charitable, non-profit organization. After I left that organization a good friend of mine, who currently works there, asked me to do some volunteer work for the organization’s annual charity event, which is its primary fund-raising event of the year and features a silent auction and a raffle. Often, dignitaries and other luminaries from the Chicagoland area are honored at the event.
I started volunteering in mid-September and quickly developed an Excel project plan, complete with activities and due dates. But because the event is massive in terms of its many components, the development of the project plan seemed to be “too little too late.” I would not say that the project was a failure, nor would I say that it was a complete success either. Looking back, now 5 weeks later, I can see that the biggest problem was that we were constrained in a number of ways, each being quite impactful potentially. One of the constraints involved staff: the organization is quite small and we simply did not have enough staff or volunteers to help out during the “perform phase” of the project, consequently, the event chair and I spent nearly 18 hours a day working on details. Another constraint was finances. We lacked adequate funding to put on a really spectacular gala and had to resort to creating display items and decorations ourselves. Lastly we were constrained by ineffective communication systems with our board of directors. Our volunteer board members have full-time jobs of their own and are often unavailable for consultation and direction. However, for certain aspects of the event we could not continue with the work until a board member acted, or made a decision.
For sure a Constraints Matrix would have greatly helped us by forcing us to identify potential problems, assess their impact and develop contingency plans. I believe a Linear Responsibility Chart would have proved beneficial to us as well because, by using it, we could have involved the few staff members that were available much sooner in the project. And the Linear Responsibility Chart outlines tasks to be done and the person responsible. By using it we could have identified staffing gaps much sooner and been prepared to fill them by bringing on additional volunteers.
I started volunteering in mid-September and quickly developed an Excel project plan, complete with activities and due dates. But because the event is massive in terms of its many components, the development of the project plan seemed to be “too little too late.” I would not say that the project was a failure, nor would I say that it was a complete success either. Looking back, now 5 weeks later, I can see that the biggest problem was that we were constrained in a number of ways, each being quite impactful potentially. One of the constraints involved staff: the organization is quite small and we simply did not have enough staff or volunteers to help out during the “perform phase” of the project, consequently, the event chair and I spent nearly 18 hours a day working on details. Another constraint was finances. We lacked adequate funding to put on a really spectacular gala and had to resort to creating display items and decorations ourselves. Lastly we were constrained by ineffective communication systems with our board of directors. Our volunteer board members have full-time jobs of their own and are often unavailable for consultation and direction. However, for certain aspects of the event we could not continue with the work until a board member acted, or made a decision.
For sure a Constraints Matrix would have greatly helped us by forcing us to identify potential problems, assess their impact and develop contingency plans. I believe a Linear Responsibility Chart would have proved beneficial to us as well because, by using it, we could have involved the few staff members that were available much sooner in the project. And the Linear Responsibility Chart outlines tasks to be done and the person responsible. By using it we could have identified staffing gaps much sooner and been prepared to fill them by bringing on additional volunteers.
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