Hot Topic – 1 August 2020

Emily Luijbregts Project Manager| Siemens PLM Software Breda, Netherlands

During the month of August, ProjectManagement.com will focus on Communication. I think that Communication skills are the Foundation to being a successful project manager and it's something we can all utilise and improve.

We're lead to believe that a Project Manager spends between 80-90% of their time communicating. I'd love to hear your top tip for being an efficient and effective communicator.

Mine is: plan your communications appropriately. This doesn't just mean the audience but specifically the content that you're trying to share. Can it be reused? Is it necessary/applicable to the audience.

Posted: Aug 3, 2020 4:48 AM

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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina

Aug 11, 2020 8:37 AM

Replying to Maria Lekha Johnson

...

I read this and it is a mathematical paper with much formulae. Not sure what is the takeaway for us from that paper.

Is not a mathematical paper. Is a whole work which is the basement of communication and information. Perhaps you find the original paper only, but it is an related book written by Shannon. All you know about that have the basement on Shannon theory. For example, it demonstrate that the common believe about the number of channels of communication makes communication difficult is wrong. Or things like today called "big data". And it demonstrate that the other myth what stated @Emily in this post is wrong too. But no problem, things could not be valuable for everybody. Just I can affirm that when people need to understand about communication and information there is not other source more valid than Shannon, at least about basement and foundation on that.

Posted: Aug 11, 2020 8:49 AM (Updated by author: Aug 11, 2020 9:18 AM)

George Freeman Thought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States

Hi Emily,

I like how you stated it, “plan your communication appropriately… content, audience, reusability, etc.” And it’s true, we are traditionally “led” to believe that 80-90% of a PM’s time is spent in communication related activities, but that is type-casting project managers and in general is a complete misnomer. Here’s a closed poll that I did about a year ago regarding different PM brands/styles:

- Pragmatist, mixed methods (31)
- Manager (23)
- Coach (16)
- Next Generation PM (15)
- Process Specialist (14)
- Soft-Skills Expert (11)
- Technical Delivery Expert (10)
- Executive (7)
- Philosopher / Architect (6)
- Business Domain Expert (5)

Each one of these brands/styles of PM’s communicate differently, then you have variables like you stated in your question:

- Type of Project (e.g. one communicates differently in an ERP implementation then an agile driven mobile application project).

- Audiences (e.g. executive versus project team, or mix).

- Half-life requirements (i.e. what is the lifespan or life-cycle of the content generated)

- etc.

Bottom Line: PM’s make the call on communication activities based on what is needed to make the project successful. Standards are great and we should always reference them, but yield to the contextual needs of your project.

Posted: Aug 11, 2020 3:04 PM

Emily Luijbregts Project Manager| Siemens PLM Software Breda, Netherlands

George: your last paragraph sums everything about communication management for me. Thank you for also posting your poll. That's very helpful!

Posted: Aug 12, 2020 12:39 AM

Arash Max Ghorbandaei, PMP,RMP,ACP,LSSBB Senior Project Manager| Associa Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Love this topic Emily as Communication is very near and dear to my heart. I think effective communication can dramatically increase the chance of success for a project and the opposite is also true.

I took a Culture shaping course through my organization earlier this year and one of the my biggest takeaways was the "mood elevator". Recognizing your mood and the mood of others when you are communicating with them and how you can leverage this to help run your meetings.

With the recent changes and the need for more virtual communication, Just like everything else I went through of phase of adapting to the new norms and at the beginning I was very camera shy but now I always try to make sure I have my camera on, when on a video call and I encourage others to do the same.

Posted: Aug 26, 2020 9:21 AM

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Hot Topic – 1 August 2020

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