Management of Communications

00:00 Hello and welcome.

00:02 This module will focus on the manage communications process from the PMBOK Bot guide. It's rated as high exam importance because effective project communications are seen as essential to project success. So pay particular attention to this particular executing process.

00:24 The level of difficulty is rated as medium, but memorization is low because a lot of the concepts you've seen before and the new ones aren't too difficult to remember.

00:35 The particular domain task that managed project communications helps us understand is executing Task six.

00:46 Which says manage the flow of information by following the communications plan in order to keep stakeholders engaged and informed.

00:56 And that's what we're going to focus on with this process.

01:02 The key themes of the managed communications process are it's the execution of the communications management plan.

01:10 It's where the bulk of our communications actually take place and this is where we're doing the communications as detailed in our communications management plan. And hopefully, if we do it correctly, we're going to keep stakeholders fully updated and engaged on project progress because remember, there's very close links between effective communications and effective stakeholder management.

01:37 They go hand in hand in order to fully engage and manage stakeholder expectations.

01:44 You need effective communications.

01:47 So do pay particular attention to this process.

01:52 The particular inputs that we may find useful are.

01:58 Obviously, our communications management plan, which is an output from plan communications management.

02:06 And of course, we need that because that's going to guide all of our doing and controlling activities.

02:12 We'll also want some work performance report because this is what we're going to be communicating to our stakeholders in order to keep them informed on project performance.

02:24 We may also want to take into account specific enterprise environmental factors about reporting content or frequency or format.

02:34 We may also want to use relevant and appropriate organizational processes, such as those parts of our project management methodology relating to communications.

02:47 The particular tools and techniques that we may find useful include communications technology, communications model and communications method.

02:58 Now each of these tools and techniques we've actually already seen and the planned communications management process, we're going to go over them again here as well. But communications technology is your choice about the right technology use to get those work performance reports out to the stakeholders so that they understand the message within them.

03:21 A communications model that we're going to show you will highlight some of the difficulties you face in getting communications out to stakeholders, and we'll look at some specific communications methods to help you choose the right one for the right stakeholder at the right time.

03:39 Information management systems are another useful tool and technique, and these are simply any System.

03:46 you use to record, retrieve, store and archive any of your project information.

03:55 Usually it's on a server somewhere with a file structure indicating where the documents are stored.

04:02 You may still use hard copies for certain information, particularly highly confidential information.

04:11 And ultimately, we're going to be doing performance reporting.

04:15 We're going to be choosing the elements of the performance to put into our reports for different stakeholders and distributing those reports to stakeholders.

04:24 Now some stakeholders, particularly senior management, they just want summary information about the pertinent issues on the project and perhaps we need their assistance and focus.

04:36 Project team members will need more detailed performance reporting, probably including a bit more text and and some graphs and even things like red, amber, green or traffic light reporting.

04:49 The particular performance reporting you choose will depend on the stakeholders and the level and type of information they need to choose your performance report carefully to make sure they are effective communications devices. Let's take a close look at a potential model for communications.

05:10 There are many models.

05:11 This is the one that you're most likely encounter in the exam and you'll need to show some understanding of it.

05:17 What the model essentially does is prove that despite your best intentions, the message you choose to send may not be what the receiver hears because you, as the sender encode that message according to your preferences and biases.

05:34 You choose the content, the wording, the medium.

05:37 You then send that message through a particular medium.

05:41 Obviously, if it's an email that's going through the electronic medium, if it's a meeting, it's going through spoken word in close proximity medium.

05:49 If it's a newspaper ad, it's going through the newspaper as the medium.

05:53 But whatever medium you choose, the message will encounter noise.

05:58 Now, noise is anything that can affect the medium.

06:03 If you'd selected E-Mail as your medium, you may find that noise, is that some people only read the title or don't fully read the email, particularly if it's long, if it's a meeting that you're holding and that's your medium.

06:18 You may find that noise is the distractions in the room, people checking their smartphones, people's energy levels or attention levels.

06:27 These are all. Examples of noise that can affect the message getting through. But then once your message gets through the media and countering noise, it gets to the receiver who then decodes according to their preferences and biases.

06:44 Which means they'll only hear what they want to hear.

06:48 So as you can see, despite your best intentions at giving across an effective message, there's a lot of things that can get in the way before the receiver gets it.

06:58 And then if they pass the message back on to you, they then encode that message according to their preferences and biases.

07:05 Pass it through the medium where it encounters noise, and you then decode it again so you can see we can have all sorts of problems which get in the way of our best intentions.

07:17 The best thing you can do is be aware of these potential problems and look for ways to improve the efficiency of the messages you're sending.

07:29 Here are some tools you'll need to know for the exam.

07:32 All about communication.

07:35 The first one is active listening.

07:39 And this is where you are engaged in some communication, but you are taking active steps to ensure the message was understood.

07:47 You are participating fully, listening intently to the message with a desire to understand it fully rather than just sitting it back and half heartedly listening.

07:59 Effective listening is very similar to active listening, but it takes it one step further, and it includes monitoring nonverbal and physical communication. It's often said that 90 per cent of a person's communication is actually nonverbal.

08:17 It's the body language.

08:18 It's the attention span.

08:20 It's the way they're dressed.

08:21 It's the tone and their voice.

08:24 Becoming an effective listener is a fantastic interpersonal skill to develop as a project manager. You might also look for feedback cues from the receiver that indicate whether or not the message has been understood.

08:39 Simply saying, Could you please repeat that to me? Or if you are the receiver saying, as I understood it, what you said was it's a great example of feedback.

08:53 Here are some other terms to know nonverbal communication is perhaps the most used form of communication, but the least understood nonverbal communication includes body language posture, the way we dress, the tone in our voice.

09:10 And as we know, most communication is nonverbal, so become skilled at understanding nonverbal communication.

09:17 And this is one of the issues with virtual teams that begins to rely on emails and telephone calls as the primary mode of communication is that we can't pick up all the non-verbal cues which are so important in understanding what is actually being said. Paralegal communication is vocal, but not verbal, and includes things like the tone of the voice and the volume, how the words are said rather than what words are said.

09:47 So for example, I could say to you, you're a wonderful person or I could say, you're a wonderful person.

09:54 Same words.

09:55 But the tone and the inflections were completely different and the meaning was completely different.

10:02 So look out for paralegal communications, and in some cultures it's the paralegal communication that is the most difficult to understand, but the most important. Here are some methods of communication, and we'll combine them.

10:18 You can have informal methods of communication and formal methods of communication. You can have written methods of communication and verbal methods of communication.

10:30 And if we combine them, we can see that informal written methods of communication include emails and memos.

10:41 Formal written methods of communication include contracts, legal notices and binding project documents.

10:50 Informal verbal methods of communication include meetings, discussions, phone calls, conversations and formal verbal methods of communication include speeches, mass communications and presentations.

11:09 Another method of communication is push, pull or interactive methods of communication, a push method of communication is you pushing the information out to stakeholders, things like sending them an email that's pushing the information out to them pull as a method of communication means you putting the information somewhere and stakeholders going to it and pulling it down.

11:37 So for having a website, for example, with information on it and stakeholders, go to it and get the information they need.

11:44 That's a form of pull communication.

11:48 Interactive forms of communication are where you and the stakeholder are interacting at the same time and giving and receiving information.

11:59 Here's some more tools and techniques for information distribution methods.

12:04 Again, you need to choose the right one for the right stakeholders.

12:09 You may choose to give the work performance reports an oral form.

12:15 Or in order to preserve the record, have them presented in written form, using text or pictures or graphs, or red amber green analysis as well.

12:27 You may also choose to use electronic forms, email or websites or intranet sites as well.

12:35 But the type of method you choose to use must match the stakeholders needs.

12:42 There's no point selecting an oral method to update people for people that haven't got time to listen or who do want things in writing, whereas on the other hand, providing somewhat impersonal written updates to some stakeholders could backfire on you when they really want to see you face to face and ask questions to you directly.

13:03 So choose the right information distribution methods to suit the stakeholders and the messages you want to get across.

13:13 There are some other forms of communication that we need to focus on.

13:18 The first one is meetings, particularly effective meetings now, meaning meetings that you've been to may be ineffective.

13:27 But meetings can actually be highly effective when run properly.

13:32 Here are some rules to help you run effective meetings.

13:36 First up, set an agenda.

13:39 Stick to it.

13:40 Don't let people go off topic.

13:43 Another thing invite the people to the meeting for the time they need to be at the meeting. Don't make people sit through 50 minutes just to have their three minutes, say tell people.

13:55 The meeting starts at 10 o'clock.

13:57 Your agenda item number six, why don't you come along at 10:30 and then you can release them afterwards? Set some ground rules about being at the meeting as in switch your phones off and pay attention to the meeting.

14:12 Conversations should be limited to the decisions at the meeting is there to make any discussion should have been head between or before the meeting. I'm sure you've been in that situation where a meeting has been dominated by two people having a discussion that they should have had before the meeting.

14:32 So make sure those discussions are held before the meeting or ask people to wait behind after the meeting and have those discussions.

14:41 If the meeting's going to start at 10 o'clock, start at promptly, at 10 o'clock.

14:47 You've probably been in that situation where people are still turning up at five past ten, ten past ten And then the meeting starts.

14:54 That's a waste of time.

14:56 So here's my tip.

14:57 Start the meeting at 10 o'clock and as people come in.

15:00 Record them in the minutes as late.

15:02 They don't really like that and they will turn up on time.

15:07 Finished the meeting on time, if you say the meeting's going to finish, it'll even finish it at 11:00 if it gets to 10 minutes to 11:00 and there's still agenda items to cover. Tell people will defer these agenda items or talk with you individually afterwards and finish at 11:00.

15:24 Another sign of an effective meeting is only hold the meeting if absolutely necessary. If you've got a regularly scheduled weekly meeting but one week, there's no reason to hold it.

15:34 Don't hold it. Cancel it.

15:36 Give people back that hour of their life at the end of the meeting.

15:41 Take minutes and take action points.

15:45 But deal with those before the next meeting.

15:48 Make sure that documents are taken as read and not read at the meeting.

15:53 These are all clues and tips to help you run effective meetings. One particular meeting that you will be asked about in the exam is the Kickoff meeting.

16:05 It's a very important meeting to have.

16:08 The Kickoff meeting is done once enough planning has been completed to start executing work.

16:16 It's not done at the end of planning because, as we know, planning continues throughout the life of a project, but it's done immediately prior to executing or doing work starting.

16:27 And the purpose of the Kickoff meeting is to bring stakeholders together to let the mass final questions and also to show them that you're about to start work. It helps build confidence and build support for your project.

16:41 So the Kickoff meeting is a very important meeting to hold both the technical and port input and support for your project.

16:50 And remember, whenever possible, face to face meetings are better than virtual meetings using video or audio conferencing facilities, face to face encourages the development of relationships.

17:05 Performance reporting is one of those tools and techniques that is at the crux of this particular process, because that's what it's all about.

17:13 It's choosing the right information to report at the right time to the right stakeholders on how well the project is progressing.

17:21 Once again, just to emphasize, you must choose the right method and format and content and timing to suit the stakeholders needs.

17:32 Your goal here is to support your stakeholder management activities and influencing activities.

17:39 Remember, what we're trying to do is to get stakeholders to support our project or at least not oppose it.

17:45 So we choose the right information.

17:48 Not too much.

17:49 Not too little.

17:51 I ask the stakeholders what their needs are and document it and your communications register and use this to distribute those performance reports appropriately.

18:00 And performance reports can include text numbers, spreadsheets, red, amber green or traffic light analysis, other graphs like line graphs, Gantt-Chart a wonderful way to communicate project progress as well.

18:15 But the key point here is choose the right format, content and timing of your performance reports to suit the stakeholders.

18:23 And don't assume that all stakeholders want the same information in the same format at the same time.

18:32 The outputs from the managed communications process include the project communications, and as we've seen, they take many forms, but they must suit the stakeholders needs and your goal is effective project communications. We may also have updates to our project management plan about other aspects of it that need to be updated to reflect our project communications. We may choose to update project documents such as our lessons learned, and we may choose to make subtle adjustments to organizational processes like our project management methodology and the form of further tailoring of it, and also update any blank communications registers we've developed to make them more efficient.

19:18 So in summary, the managed communications process has been about carrying out the communications work as detailed in the Communications Management Plan and the communications register.

19:29 And remember, successful communications is absolutely critical to project success.

19:39 Thank you very much.

19:40 This has been an overview and an introduction to the managed communications process in the PMBOK guide.