Project Communication – Keep Going

Communications is not a revenue-earning activity and I know my budget is stretched. Should I cut communication? Not if the project depends on it – and many do: unless senior management can see the benefit to their overall objectives they justifiably lose interest.

So when times are hard, make sure that your communication focuses on ROI and stakeholder involvement.  The wider awareness raising communication that some project managers enjoy may need to be slimmed down so that the communication is efficient and timely.

How do I know when the right time to communicate is?

Communication a need for stakeholder involvement early enough that your stakeholders know to plan time for it.  Then as the time is closer, reminders may be needed and firm commitments requested from them.

When communicating progress tell stakeholders about measured value and publicise your achievements.

People will be interested when they can see the benefits for themselves.  Make some of the communication opportunities as interactive as possible.

Proving how communication activities make a tangible difference to projects is not always easy. However, if you look back at projects that were great and those that were only average, in most organizations, the difference is the quality of communication.

If your project is struggling with lots of additional emails or calls from stakeholders, you may actually need to spend more on planned communication to free the team to focus on other work.

It is worth getting feedback on your communication. Decide which of your organisation’s measurement and feedback mechanisms that best fit your needs and resources.  Make sure you measure every communication with those that it is intended for and learn from that feedback: by the key points in the project, you’ll find your communication will have improved from your original plan.