The Project Management Corner

Project Managers have to be excellent communicators. Nearly 90% of a project manager's time is known to be spent in communication with teams, stakeholders, clients etc. In this TED Talk, '10 ways to have a better conversation', Celeste Headlee discusses things that we can do to improve our communication skills. They are not the usual standbys that we already know such as look the person in the eye, think of interesting topics to discuss in advance, nod and smile to show that you are paying attention, and repeat back what you just heard. It's time to put these to rest and master new skills.

Here are the 10 tips in summary. Most of these are related to mistakes that we make while having conversations. 

1. Don't multitask. Be present and be in that moment.

2. Don't pontificate. If you want to state your opinion without any response, her advice is to write a blog. :)

3. Use open ended questions with who, what, when, where, why and how.

4. Go with the flow of the conversation. Other thoughts will come into your mind. Let them go out.

5. If you don't know, say that you don't know.

6. Don't equate your experience with theirs. All experiences are individual.

7. Try not to repeat yourself. This can happen in work conversations when we try to make a point.

8. Stay out of the weeds. Forget the details about years, names, dates, etc.

9. Listen. "Most of us don't listen with the intent to understand. We listen with the intent to reply" - Stephen Covey.

10. Be brief.

Watch the TEDTalk. If you master at least a few of the 10, you will be on your way to improving your communication. Something to add to the New Year resolutions list!

The communication plan is an important part of the overall project plan. It defines how the communication will occur during the project execution with everyone who has a stake in the project. Effective and efficient communication is key to a successful project. It can help to identify risks and issues, avoid duplication of work and build relationships. A good communication plan will always have the following elements.

• Communication objectives
• Target audience
• Purpose of communication for each audience
• Content / artifacts for the communication
• Information sources for the content
• Communication method
• Communication frequency
• Responsible communicator

By putting all of these elements together you can build a comprehensive plan. One last key component that project managers have to include in their communication plan is

• Measurement of success

How will you know that the plan is working? You need a way to measure the effectiveness of the communication. If the plan is not working and you are not meeting the communication objectives, it has to be re-designed to be more effective.

Last month I opened a discussion on Project Management Central to find out what kind of tools and techniques project managers use to measure the effectiveness of communication plans. Based on the feedback, I compiled the following list of tools that can be used to evaluate the communication plan.

1. Meeting evaluation form: A survey that can be filled by the participants at the the end of the meeting. Keep in mind that this should be short enough for the participants to fill in quickly. This can also be done via e-mail immediately after the meeting. Here is simple template for a meeting evaluation form.

2. Verbal feedback: This is a good techniques for small audiences. Request for feedback at the end of the meeting and take notes. This feedback can be used to make the next meeting more productive.

3. Engagement profiles: In the article "Beyond Reporting--The Communication Strategy" Lynda Bourne describes the use of engagement profiles to measure the effectiveness of the communication plan. This technique involves assessing the gap between the current and target attitude of each stakeholder. Read the article for more details. This is a good technique that can be used for key stakeholders.

4. Open forums: Forums such as retrospective meetings are a good medium to get feedback about the overall communication plan from your team. Find out what went well and what didn't in terms of the communication and adjust the plan for the next sprint, iteration or phase.

I believe a mix of these techniques can be used to measure the effectiveness of the communication plan based on the audience and the type of communication. Do you have tools in place to measure your communication plan? What techniques do you use? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

As project managers we all have to deal with conflict as part of our role. Conflict situations arise throughout the life-cycle of a project. You will have conflicts with clients, stakeholders and team members as well as witness conflicts between them. Conflict management goes hand in hand with project management.

How can project managers prepare or arm themselves to handle conflict? What are the skills that we have to develop?

1. Communication

Communicating clearly and effectively is the key to resolving conflict. Communication is a big part of project management and in conflict situations it becomes even more vital. Continuing to improve your communications skills and learning to communicate clearly will increase your ability to handle conflicts.

When you are in the middle of a conflict, non-verbal communication plays an essential part. Facial expression, tone of voice, posture etc. contribute to the exchange during a disagreement. Improving you non-verbal communication skills will also go a long way towards better conflict management.

2. Active listening

Practice active listening when handling conflict situations by giving verbal and physical signs that you understand what the other person is saying. This is a very useful skill for conflict resolution because it will help the other person to trust you and open up. Then, you can get to the root cause of the real problem and understand the other person's point of view.

3. Negotiation

Conflicts arise from disagreements and to resolve them you have to try to reach a compromise. This is where your negotiation skills will come in handy. Oftentimes project managers have to negotiate conflicts with timelines or resources with the team. These issues are usually resolved by negotiating with them and coming to an agreement where both parties may have to compromise.

4. Collaboration

The ideal resolution for a conflict is a win / win outcome where you arrive at a solution that is agreeable to everyone. Rather than looking at a problem as us vs them, you can think of it as common issue and work together to resolve it. Collaborate with the other party to reach a win / win outcome. For a project manager the ability to collaborate with your team and your clients is crucial to the success of the project.

5. Stress management

Learning to manage your own stress is the key to staying calm in conflict situations. If stress overwhelms you, you won't be able to communicate clearly and respond in a positive way. Project managers have to be in control over themselves and their emotions to be able to manage conflict situations. A manager who loses his temper, for example, runs the risk of alienating the team.

6. Emotional awareness

Being emotionally aware helps you to understand yourself and others. In conflict situations it’s important to understand what is really troubling the other person as well as yourself. The ability to handle conflict depends on being connected to the emotions underpinning the situation.

Developing these skills will help you to improve your ability to manage conflicts in a constructive way.

How do you handle conflict situations? What other skills do you think will be beneficial? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Update:

There's an excellent webinar by Shawn Stratton on Effective Conflict Resolution. Shawn discusses the 5 dysfunctions of a team, 5 major causes of destructive conflict, how to facilitate healthy conflict and a simple and effective conflict resolution model. If you are interested in learning more about conflict resolution I definitely recommend this webinar.