Effective Communicating
is crucial to a project manager. With
any project, one task relies on others so a few missed deadlines can cause a
project to be severely late. Key
stakeholders may not support a project if they are not given enough
information. Not listening effectively can
mean that a critical component was not identified until later in a project
causing re-work for the team. Any of
these issues can cause a project to fail.
Project managers must communicate well both orally and in writing to
avoid such problems (Portny,
Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008).
As I read
the e-mail from Jane regarding the report Mark was supposed to complete, I
interpreted that Mark was late with the report and that his lateness was
holding Jane up from completing her work. The written communication was very
professional and I felt a real sense of urgency in the tone of the e-mail. According to Dr. Stolovitch, written
communication should state a clear purpose, include possible solutions and
specify the type of response (Laureate Education, n.d.). Jane did include a possible solution by
offering to
Since I
began the exercise with the e-mail communication which had a more forceful
tone, the voicemail and face-to-face communications both seemed to lack the
urgency of Jane’s need for the data from Mark’s report. I wonder if I had approached the task in
reverse if I would feel the same way.
Maybe Mark was not late; this was never stated however I got this
impression from the first modality and it stuck with me while I reviewed the
others. It is possible that this skewed by view of the voicemail and
face-to-face conversations. Given that Jane
is approaching a deadline and is worried about being late though, I have to
believe that there is some urgency in the message and that the most effective
message in this case was the e-mail message.
Though it is
important to document conversations regarding a project; especially one that is
discussing deadlines, I think I would choose to have a face-to face
conversations in this situation in order to get the commitment from Mark to
deliver what I needed in time (Laureate Education, n. d.). Of course this may be influenced some by what
has worked with this stakeholder in the past, if there is a known history or
pattern (Laureate Education, n.d.). In
most cases, holding the conversation face-to-face seems to soften the message
which would be very helpful when discussing topics that are particularly
controversial. Tone and body language
can help get the true meaning of a message across to the stakeholders.
References
Laureate
Education (Producer). (n.d.). Communicating with stakeholders [Video file].
Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Practitioner voices: Strategies for working with stakeholders [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Multimedia Program: "The Art of Effective Communication" Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6145/03/mm/aoc/index.html
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Practitioner voices: Strategies for working with stakeholders [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Multimedia Program: "The Art of Effective Communication" Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6145/03/mm/aoc/index.html
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Lisa is funny how people can misinterpret different messages as the mode of communication changes form. I was shock to see that you felt the e-mail made the information being relayed seem more urgent. In an empirical study done in the 70’s by Chaiken (1983), she concluded that written messages enhances comprehension but has little effect on persuasiveness when used as a mode of communication. I guess how one perceives urgency depends on the person who is receiving the message communicates. This is why creating a communication plan about how you will communicate urgent messages is critical when working on teams.
ReplyDeleteReference
Caiiken, S. & Eagly, A. (1983). Communication Modality as a Determinant of Persuassion: The Role of Communicator Salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2, 241-256. Retrieved from http://osil.psy.ua.edu/672readings/T4-MassCom,prop,persuasion/chaiken%26eagly.pdf
You wrote, "Though it is important to document conversations regarding a project; especially one that is discussing deadlines, I think I would choose to have a face-to face conversations in this situation in order to get the commitment from Mark to deliver what I needed in time "
ReplyDeleteThis is a very valuable tip. Face to face, people don't feel like they can say "no" a lot of the time. They often feel a greater desire to be liked and might be more susceptible to agreement when approached in person.
Additionally, Jane is using a compliance technique called "door-in-the-face" (Cialdini, et al., 1975) to get the information she wants. She's presenting something more distasteful (get the entire report to her) in order to have that dismissed in favor of the thing she really wants (a small subset of the data from the report). Door-in-the-face doesn't have to be literal, or in person, but combined with people's desire to be liked and agreeable, its a potent way to get compliance.
Reference
Cialdini, R.B.; Vincent, J.E.; Lewis, S.K.; Catalan, J.; Wheeler, D.; Darby, B. L. (1975). "Reciprocal concessions procedure for inducing compliance: the door-in-the-face technique.". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 31: 206–215.