Communication January 13, 2015M. Cornacchia 1

Effective Communication Organizations that communicate more effectively have more successful projects A good communication process keeps stakeholders engaged and project teams motivated Effective communication doesn’t just convey facts. It makes people understand the role they play in the project Effective communication engages everyone who touches the project 2

Achieving Effective Communication Project managers and their teams must learn to speak in the language of business Organizations must help everyone learn to say the right things to the right people 3

Essential Role of Communications The most crucial success factor in project management is effective communications to all The majority of organizations have opportunities to identify problem areas and chart a course to improve the effectiveness of their project communications. Characteristics of High Performing Organizations: Communicate more frequently across all topics, including communicating the strategy/business benefit. Communicate more frequently than low performers in all ways of delivering the message Create formal communications plans for nearly twice as many projects Have Project communications plans that are more than three times as effective. 4

Poor communication causes most IT project failures Communication is a component of a project at every stage –Managers need to communicate the objectives, expected results and budget restrictions to everyone involved. –Managers need to determine who to communicate with, when to communicate, and how to communicate. 5

Ineffective Communication There is a fundamental difficulty in communicating with the appropriate clarity and detail Lack of effective communication dramatically increases the risk projects face and the likelihood that they will fall short Ineffective communication is to blame for more than half of projects that fail to meet business goals. 6

Lack of Communication Communications facilitate effective decisions across the team Where communications breakdown, the effectiveness of the decisions being made can rapidly turn bad 7

Communication Failure: Hurricane Katrina Effectively managing any project, especially one responding to an emergency situation, demands an open communication network from top to bottom. The communication network was never created. Agencies were unwilling to share information with other agencies The ability to communicate is really tested when separate organizations must communicate and coordinate their efforts. At least four organizations, each with their own organizational cultures and strong leaders, were involved. 8

The Price of Poor Communication 9

Communication Failure: NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter Project In 1999 a Mars space probe from NASA was ‘lost’. A number of the failures related to project management according to the report of the subsequent investigation. Communications and training within the project had been inconsistent Reason for the failure: The problem was found to be poor communication between, rather than within, different teams. Project 10

Strategies to Improve Communication Close the communications gap around business benefits –Take ownership and better communicate the strategic and business benefits of projects to those responsible for their implementation. Tailor communications to different stakeholder groups –Understand that various stakeholder groups use language differently and tailor communications accordingly Acknowledge the value of project management, including project management communications –Use standardized project management practice. A formal communications plan must be adaptable and suitable to all stakeholders Communications.ashx 11

Verbal and Non Verbal Communication 7% of communication is verbal 38% is conveyed through the quality of voice—tone, volume, speed and pitch 55% is through posture, movements, gestures, facial expressions, breathing and skin-color changes 12

90% of a project manager's time is spent communicating what is going to be done Never take for granted that the receiver will interpret the message the same way as the sender intended it. 13