Mastering Project Communication: 4 Powerful Tactics To Elevate Your Game

How to improve your communication processes

In personal and business contexts, the capability of executing tasks both efficiently and effectively is regarded highly, and is much sought out. Businesses need to deliver results faster than their competitors, otherwise they risk falling behind since the world is moving with lightning speeds.

Although resource efficiency depends on multiple factors, a key component of it is effective communication. And while effective communication is critical for successful results, it’s often overlooked.

As a Project Manager, I’ve witnessed first hand some of the most severe consequences when communication fails. I believe you have too, in your own context. These failures translate into high costs of lost time, money, energy, and more.

The consequences are high.

The million dollar question then is, how can we fix this?

We can start by first taking a look at the underlying reasons.

Unravelling the causes

As humans, we tend to think that what we say or what we communicate to others is understood exactly as we interpret it in our minds. Barrier languages, cultural differences, use of jargon, as well as emotional disconnect are all valid reasons that may incur miscommunication within any context.

On top of that, each one of us is unique in our own way, meaning that differences in communication styles exist. Consequently, people communicate in their own distinct ways.

Our digital era doesn’t help much either.

In a world where vast amounts of information is being exchanged daily at the click of a button, it’s not surprising that we suffer from information overload. This may cause confusion, disorientation, and can overwhelm individuals, making it difficult for them to focus on essential messages.

Last but not least, I argue that the lack of trust within organisations plays a pivotal role in communication issues. Trust matters significantly within a team as it paves the way forward for open and transparent communication. The likelihood of ambiguous and unclear communication therefore is reduced.

Let’s see how we can improve our situation.

How to navigate the situation

Indeed, enhancing our communication systems does not have a straight forward path and can often times be a complex endeavour affecting multiple areas.

I have found throughout my experience by dealing with a number of people from numerous different teams and departments, the below to be extremely helpful.

They can be used as a starting point. Understandably, some tailoring to your own context will be needed.

Setting up clear communication channels

To start, your team must know what forms of communication are acceptable, and through which mediums. For example, verbal discussions might be ok on a team level between a few people, but for formal updates to be communicated in writing.

What must be established next, are the channels the information will be conveyed through. Almost all organizations now go beyond emails and use apps such as Slack, Discord, or Teams. Therefore it is important to define what can be said and where.

For projects where multiple stakeholders are engaged, what I found best to be working is keeping most communication in writing. For smaller, simpler projects, the majority of discussions happens in writing, but with more leniency in facilitating it through unofficial channels (for example, private messages between colleagues).

But important, official updates, approvals, or messages that required decision-making authority are always in written.

Try this.

Think of the communication dynamics within your team. Identify how people generally discuss with each other (and for what reasons, i.e. project updates or day to day stuff) so you envision how you can map the various types of communication with their respective channels.

Speaking from experience, you will find out that individuals tend to follow systems that may not be included in the corporate manual (this reflects to the company’s culture). Use this to your advantage.

You can then proceed to write down procedures that explain the above. You can say for example that major milestones are always to be communicated via email, whereas day to day information exchange regarding a task can be through personal messages or even verbally.

Capturing all requirements from the beginning

This goes back to the start of a project and is significantly influenced by having clear project documentation.

By ensuring all objectives are captured from the very start, people’s buy-in is more likely to be secured.

Additionally, when the project’s tasks are disseminated to the relevant personnel, their awareness is secured from the start. Therefore no surprises when it’s time for execution. And just like that, miscommunication, ambiguity, and confusion, are all minimized.

Understandably, business needs change and therefore project requirements change. Hence, this point is challenging.

However, by attempting to do so, you have more chances of documenting everything. You can achieve this by ensuring that your project requirements are recorded in a clear and concise manner, and are communicated effectively to the relevant parties.

In the event where circumstances change, it is vital that these are conveyed to the relevant parties.

Which leads us to our next point.

Formalizing your follow up procedure

When we assign work or communicate information, we often assume that people will follow up on the assignment exactly as we explained it, and will carry it out successfully.

Though, the reality differs, and it is our responsibility as task givers to follow up. It may not seem so, but a solid follow up procedure is sometimes the difference between success or failure.

Being swamped with information as our current norm, small details are easy to be missed. Following up ensures this is avoided.

I am sure you have experienced something similar where minor details with significant impact have emerged throughout the duration of a project.

Think of it like this: defining your requirements and clearly documenting them are the foundations of your project, and your follow up procedure would be the reinforcing colonnades that ensure the project stays on track and doesn’t collapse on itself.

Also, by following up, you indirectly facilitate an initiative of proactivity which helps with capturing things before they occur, and helps in anticipating what may come next.

Establishing a process where you agree between your team the frequency of follow up communications and for what type of information can help. For example, a task that needs to be done within a week’s timeframe will require shorter frequency of follow ups compared to a large project that will take months.

And as such, we move on to our 4th and last point.

Being proactive and specific

Proactivity is what safeguards us from future dangers (to the extend we can foresee them). It means that the risks that may occur are mitigated as much as possible by ensuring the proper preparation is done through anticipation and awareness that things may indeed go wrong.

In other words, you do not react to events if they happen to you but rather prepare to deal with them when they do.

This is a powerful mentality to hold.

When communicating with relevant people about a task or a project, you can ask for information in advance for potential scenarios that may happen. It’s best to have all the information in the first place and ending up not utilizing all of it, rather than missing important details and having to acquire them when something’s gone sideways.

And ensure you are as specific as possible with your communication. Avoid ambiguous statements that carry actions in them but don’t have the specific details needed such as when they will be done and by whom.

The bottom line

Admittedly challenging, fostering an effective communication environment within your team is achievable. It’s common for many organizations to not assign the necessary gravity this endeavour requires.

The benefits when achieving this however outweigh the costs and risks when such system is absent.