Communication failures are among the most serious mistakes made in project management. For any manager, ensuring that information is transmitted effectively is crucial for the development of work and for achieving results.
In general, project managers are good communicators, but many do not know how to ensure assertive idea exchange with their team, clients, and other stakeholders.
Therefore, the challenge of combining effective communication and project management is real, but it can be overcome, leading to increasingly satisfactory results. Want to know how?
Beyond words: the importance of communication
First of all, it is valid to have information that helps to understand the value of effective communication in project management:
Data show that 75% of executives believe their projects are destined to fail from the start. In contrast, 90% of the time of a manager who successfully completed a project was spent on communication-related activities.
Communicating is not just sharing information
And it is not enough, simply, to exchange information or send data to stakeholders. Communication is only effective when the receiver truly understands what the sender of that message intended to convey.
In other words, communication is only effective when it's flawless, and managers often disregard this possibility in the process. Merely sending an email or making data available on the intranet, for example, doesn't guarantee a successful exchange. Problems of this kind are among the most frequent causes of project failures.
Communication as a relationship
For this reason, there needs to be an effort to align communication with the team and with others involved in the project.
To the manager, it's essential to understand that effective communication occurs when there's a relationship between the parties. It is this effort that ensures those involved are “on the same page” and speak “the same language,” reducing noise and failures that hinder the Good progress on the work.
This way, no matter what languages are used – formal or informal, written or non-verbal – it is the manager's role to develop an environment where communication happens clearly, directly, and objectively.
The secret is in the planning
Making all of this happen isn't always easy. Communication comes naturally to us, so thinking about planning this activity might seem strange. As we've seen, however, success is based on communication guided by resources that contribute to its effectiveness.
In this regard, planning and analysis of communications needs to be included in the process. With this in mind, we've prepared some tips:
- Define for whom, when, and how
Not everyone needs to receive all the information. Communicating everything to everyone involved in the project can be unnecessary, unproductive, and ineffective. The manager needs to know to whom each piece of information is intended, when it should be provided, and which communication channel to use in each case.
The use of project management software It is the best way to disseminate information with the necessary speed and quality, segmenting it according to interests.
- Avoid information overload
Quality is better than quantity. Too much data can make any material or conversation exhausting and confusing. This contributes to failures in the message reception process.
- Choose appropriate communication channels
At times, digital communication – whether via email or other platforms – seems the most practical and interesting. However, it's not always the most effective. There are cases where verbal communication is more appropriate to ensure that information is properly understood by its recipients, for example.
- Assess the need for the use of technical language
Choosing the right language for each material and occasion also makes a difference. Sometimes, simplifying the message is the key to more effective communication.
One of the success factors of a good communication process in projects is feedback. How about learning how to use it?
