Project Communications: Why Are They so Poor and What Can Be Done About This?
Project Communications: Why Are They so Poor and What Can Be Done About This?
By Ron Rosenhead
We recently surveyed around 2,500 people. One of the results of this survey has been the large percentage of people who suggest that project communications are really poor. 71% of the 2,550 people (1,775) suggested that project communications are really poor.
NOT a good result!
Many people on courses (outside the sample survey) suggested that the results mirror general communications in the business. This suggests that people are simply accepting that this is the status quo. This is a hardly the best solution to the problem.
So, what can you do to ensure that communications in projects helps deliver the actual outcomes? Here are a few suggestions:
- If you are involved in a major organisational change then appoint someone who will manage this important element of the project.
- Identify all the activities you need to carry out and put them on your planning charts – milestone, Gantt.
- Think communications – sounds silly but if you are involved in a project you will need to take people along with you. This can only be done by thinking about how this can be done. The activity comes from the thinking…
- Use a simple template.
- Review communications at your project meetings.
- Ensure there is a link with your stakeholder management plans.
You of course will have your own ideas so why not join in the debate?
About Ron Rosenhead (In his own words)
I first became involved in project management quite accidentally! While working in a large organisation which was going through huge change I realised that these changes would only be successful if people delivered projects effectively. But, no one had received any training in this area!
I ran a series of workshops and saw that this was an important area – working to help organisations deliver projects on time and to budget.
I have personally trained many thousands of people to deliver projects effectively. In addition, I have spoken at conferences, coached individuals and worked with project teams. After encouragement from a couple of grateful workshop participants I wrote Deliver That Project – a practical guide to delivering projects.
Alongside this my big project is to make my company Project Agency even more successful. We work with a wide range of clients providing them with project management training alongside developing in-house project management systems to ensure a uniform approach to project delivery.