Communication Excellence in Project Management

Recently finished Caroline Webb's How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life. In this book, Ms. Webb shares the latest neuroscience findings to help you become more personally productive and work better with co-workers.

One piece of advice that I found especially useful for project teams was the "discover-defend axis." The idea is to shift people's behavior from being defensive to being open to discovery. The key is to build a safe place where people can freely explore without feeling the threat of loss or failure.

I've seen this with project teams where project managers have created a culture of defensiveness (often unintentionality).  By intentionality creating a culture of discovery, project managers can realize greater innovation and productivity from their project teams. There are some great strategies that can project managers build a great culture for themselves and their teams.

According to a recent article in the Harvard Business review, "Research shows that our brains think of companies not as objects but as people. Every time someone engages with your brand, they are asking you: 'So tell me about your yourself.'”

The author, Mark Bonchek, advances the idea of the strategic narrative which is designed to "creat[e] a context of human connection, collaborat[e] around a shared purpose, and [connect] with the company’s DNA." A strategic narrative is how people connect with the company on an emotional level.

This led me to think of how strategic narrative can be used by project managers to advance their projects. When you examine the definition of strategic narrative, you can see that it aligns closely with the definition of a project vision. So, in a sense, a good project vision should be a good story because it serves the same purpose as a strategic narrative. When team members connect emotionally to the project, then the project manager has the full attention and engagement of the project team.

Adam Ward asked some great questions in response to my last posting:

1) “We know we need to communicate, but--what has to give in order to make time for ‘wandering around?’”

In response, what is more important than wandering around (physically and virtually) to communicate with the stakeholders and project team members? In fact, I consider it good practice for project managers to make regular rounds like doctors do when attending to patients. One good practice is to schedule regular rounds of visiting the project team. I also schedule a quick breakfast meeting every two weeks where I encouraged information sharing. Thanks to mobile apps, a project manager should not feel as if they are tied to their desktop in their office.

2) “How should we design our communication management plans to minimize the likelihood of these behaviors?”

The behaviors that Mr. Ward refers to are: lacking integrity; inappropriately dealing with people; not accepting responsibility, and isolating one’s self. These are not behaviors that can easily be fixed with communication management plans. Rather, these are behaviors that are best addressed with a good mentor or executive coach.

Also, project managers should work to make sure that such behaviors do not develop in the project team members. Now, the difficult question is how to deal with a project sponsor, a project customer, or stakeholder who exhibits such behaviors? Realistically, the project manager should recognize the damage that the behavior can cause and protect themselves and their team appropriately.

Thank you, Mr. Ward, for the thought-provoking questions.

ProjectManager.com has just released a study on how project managers view project management tools. Five-hundred and seventeen professionals in the LinkedIn group took the survey. According to the group's demographics, 67% of the LinkedIn members are project managers with 44% of the group members in IT.

I wasn't able to download the full report, so I am reporting off the summary. Even so, the summary has four interesting findings:

1. 56% of project managers are unhappy with current tools.
2. 48% of project managers say that lack of integration is their number one complaint.
3. Only 26% of project managers use the collaborative features in their tools.
4. There is a growing demand for simpler tools.

I think this is a very revealing quote from the report: "Of those who participated in the survey 33% said their tool takes too much time to use, 26% said their team won’t use it, 13% said their tool was too complicated and 12% said the tool required too much training."

In my opinion and in my experience working with a number of project management tools, the biggest impediment to their use is that enhance the flow of communication and collaboration. I often talk about how the tool forces the project team to meet the needs of the tool rather than vice-versa. I remember the early days of using Microsoft Project and how much information I had to put in at first just to even build a decent network diagram.

My favorite project management tools are a whiteboard, dry-erase markers, stack of Post-It notes, and a blank wall. Think of how these simple tools enhance communication and collaboration by recording what the project team members decide in their conversations while not hindering the conversations. An online tool that I like to use is Padlet because it captures the simplicity and the flexibility of a white board, blank wall, and Post-It notes.

What are your favorite project management tools and why? How do they help you and your team communicate and collaborate?