A Conversation, Not a Set of Questions
Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.
One of the big advantages of artificial intelligence is that you can interact with it without the need for any specialist skills or training. It understands plain language requests, and provides information that doesn’t require specialist skills to interpret.
However, that ease of access can be problematic. It suggests to users that it doesn’t matter how they interact with the tool…and nothing could be further from the truth.
Communication rules apply
As project managers, we are taught right from the start how important communication skills are. We understand that different people respond best to different styles of communication, and that we are going to get different responses depending on how we ask questions. AI is no different.
If you want to get information from a team member, you won’t simply ask one question on a particular subject and then move on to a different topic when you have the answer. You’ll seek out information in a more conversational style, with multiple potential questions around different aspects of the same subject.
There will be some answers that lead to follow-up questions, and some responses that may need more explanation. There may also be some misunderstanding that needs to be clarified. At the end of the conversation, you will likely have what you were looking for, along with a list of follow-up actions …
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"Either he's dead or my watch has stopped." - Groucho Marx |
