Top 10 Tips to Enhance Project Communication for Project Success

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The key role of the project manager is to communicate with stakeholders and team members. In order to attain a smooth project flow, the interaction with stakeholders plays an important role for the project managers to plan, execute, monitor and deliver.

Communication

According to PMI- Pulse Of The Profession In-Depth Report,

Organizations possessing effective communication have more successful projects.

Poor communication leads to project failure. The conflicts due to poor or ineffective communication can result in a negative work environment. The project manager should possess effective communication skills to manage the project successfully.

According to Forbes Insights 2010 Strategic Initiatives report,

• 88% of the strategists say that communications are critical to the success of their strategic initiatives
• 46% that communications are an integral and active component of the strategic planning and execution process.

According to PMI’s Pulse of the Profession report, Effective communication is the most crucial success factor in project management life cycle. On average, one out of five projects fails due to a lack of communication between the project manager, team members, and stakeholders.

Here are the 10 tips to enhance project management:

1. Active listening
2. Practice non-verbal communication
3. Use milestone tracker
4. Automate reports
5.  Use email mailing lists
6. Use voicemail
7. Use a communication calendar
8. Always be available for discussions
9. Use checklists
10. Use collaboration tools

1. Active Listening

Listening is very essential for a better understanding of the project. There is a significant difference between hearing and listening. When the project manager or team members fail to listen, they miss information, they misunderstand and finally, the result of the project activity will not be as per the requirement and expectation.

Making eye contact and an occasional nod, keeping your phone aside while interacting face to face can help you to actively listen and understand.

2. Practice Non-Verbal Communication

It is not necessary that only verbal communication is effective. According to PMI,

“Only 7% of our communication is verbal—the content of our communication.

Thirty-eight percent is conveyed through the quality of voice—tone, volume, speed, and pitch. Fifty-five percent is through posture, movements, gestures, facial expressions, breathing, and skin-color changes.”

3. Use milestone tracker

Prepare yourself for further communications. Keep track of all your work. Record all the information you need to communicate with others. The milestone tracker can be a simple Excel sheet. The color codes can be used to represent the status of the data an effective way of communicating and keeping updated about work progress.

4. Automate reports

The reports are automatically generated and updated using the software. This helps in communicating clear data regularly with minimum error. The data is automatically fetched and integrated through APIs. There are softwares that can automatically create dashboards and reports in a single click. Automated reports help in providing accurate data required and it is also easy to distribute the data.

5.  Use email mailing list

Using mailing lists helps in distributing the messages effectively without missing anyone. This mode of communication ensures the message has reached everyone. The distribution lists of all the mail ids involved in the project are created at once and changes are communicated through group emails. Greetings for the new employee or the farewell for the team member, the group emails are always an effective mode of communication.

6. Use voicemail

Whenever you are not available in your workplace, updating your voicemail for non-availability will leave a professional impression on others. Changing your voicemail is very important after you come back. Whenever you missed any calls voicemail will help you to prioritize your call.

7. Use a communication calendar

Creating a communication calendar will help you to plan your communication for a year. There are many communication assets.

• Newsletters
• Press releases
• Internal magazine articles
• Posters
• Flyers and leaflets
• Photos.

Communication calendars will also help you to keep reminders to update the flow of the project. If creating a communication calendar is missed, chances are there to skip the activity or prioritize other project activities.

8. Always be available for discussions

Communications are better when interacted face to face. Discussions on any issue are very effective to reach a common conclusion. The face to face interaction has its own perks. It will resolve issues, build a good work relationship. Meetings provide a platform to express your views and take a stand on your decisions.

9. Use checklists

Creating checklists of the regular tasks you do will keep your project activities in the track. Sharing the checklists with team members or managers can clearly convey the status of the project task. The checklists can be meeting with stakeholders, gathering all the requirements, allocation of resources, monitor the progress, etc.

10. Use collaboration tools

There are many collaboration tools available in the market. Technology and automation allow employees to work from any location. The tools are available for\

• File Sharing
• Chat
• Calendar management
• Project templates
• Search functionality
• API
• Automatic notifications
• Workflow management
• Task scheduling
• Access control
• Reporting & statistics
• Time tracking by project
• Document storage
• Activity logging
• Discussion board
• Instant messaging
• Prioritizing

The list of tools for effective communication are:

• Project Management Tools: Proofhub
• Real-Time Chat Tools: Microsoft Teams, HipChat
• Voice and Video Conferencing tools: Zoom, Skype
• Document Collaboration tools: Office365, G Suite
• Internal Communication Tools: Jive, Yammer

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