Communicating Effectively

Communicating Effectively

    Effective communication is fundamental in project management. "The ability to communicate well, both orally and in writing is a critical skills for project managers" (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008, p. 357). Through the projects a project manager can communicate formally and informally. For this assignment, we were presented a communication in three formats and asked to consider:

• How did your interpretation of the message change from one modality to the next?
• What factors influenced how you perceived the message?
• Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?
• What are the implications of what you learned from this exercise for communicating effectively with members of a project team?

Interpretation on each Message Modality

Written Text (Email)

    Jane is communicating to Mark that she needs his report to finish hers. She is showing respect by acknowledging that Mark has been busy in meetings, but also informing him that it is very important that he finish his report.  Jane is encouraging Mark to call her back with a possible date to submit his report or data that she needs before the dateline.

Audio (Voicemail)

    Jane is delivering the message with respectful words just like she did on the email. However, her tone of voice is indicating that she is stress with the fact that might miss her dateline to submit her report.  Jane use different inflection to emphasize information like "because your report contains data I need to finish my report. I might miss my own dateline." The message is delivering an urgency to respond as soon as possible.

Video (Face-to-Face)

    Jane starts her communication by smiling, acknowledging that Mark has been busy in meetings. However, she turns this around emphasizing a sense of urgency on the word "but". She also emphasize with words and gestures the need of Marks report in order to finish hers. She uses her hands to communicate "your" and "my" in conjunction with the tone of voice showing urgency.

    When I was reading the email, I felt it was not overwhelming with too much information, and it was direct to the point. It was respectful and persuading a reply. On the other hand, the voice intonation used on the other two approaches emphasize how important it is that Mark responds promptly with a date of possible submission of his report. The problem with the email and voice mail, is that the project manager does not know if Mark read or heard the messages. 

    The three modalities of communication, clearly explained that Mark is responsible to complete and submit his report to Jane in order to submit the project's report. It is Jane's responsibility to complete the progress report, but Mark is responsible to submit his report that includes information that is required for the project's report. Portny et al, (2008)states that "if you are responsible, you should be held accountable."

    It is clear that all three modalities of communication are important in communicating a message. However, Dr. Stolovich states that communication is not just words. Effective communication is influenced by spirit and attitude, tonality and body language, timing, and the personality of the recipient. 

    As a project manager need to be an excellent diplomat to identify and engage stakeholders. The communication needs to be clear, concise, and focused. If it is used on this way communication can be helpful to everyone involved in the project to stay on target (Laureate Education, Inc. Communicating with stakeholders, 2010). Projects can involved formal and informal communications. Most of the times stakeholders are involved in different activities and it is necessary that project managers use the three modalities shown above. However, according to Dr. Stolovich important communication is best delivered with all team members live (Laureate Education, Inc.).

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Communicating with stakeholders. Stolovich,H. [Video Webcast]. Retrieved from  https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. (2008). Project Management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The art of effective communication [Multimedia Program]. (n.d.). Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved May 15, 2012 from: http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6145/03/mm/aoc/index.html.