Managing Team Communication

Communication management refers to the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, and arrangement of project information. Effective communication aids in setting objectives, specifying procedures, reporting performance, and coordinating activities. Without good communication management, a project can degenerate into chaos!

Effective communication is important throughout a company or organization; studies show that in general 85% of a manager’s time is spent on communication. Communication time can be broken down as follows:

1. (a) Writing (9%)
2. (b) Reading (16%)
3. (c) Talking (30%)
4. (d) Listening (45%)

(Virtual projects will of course have different breakdowns.)

We retain as a function of the communication channel:

1. (a) 10% of what we read
2. (b) 20% of what we hear
3. (c) 30% of what we read and hear
4. (d) 50% of what we discuss with others
5. (e) 80% of what we experience
6. (f) 90% of what we teach to others

As a function of time, we retain:

1. (a) 50% now
2. (b) 25% in two days
3. (c) 10% after 7 days

Factors that can distort, distract, or otherwise cause the message to lose its original meaning include:

• • Language
• • Culture
• • Semantics
• • Intelligence/knowledge level
• • Authority/reputation
• • Emotional status

Listening is the most important skill related to a manager’s job, and it is one of the least developed skills among managers, and people in general. Listening is an active process that requires attention, caring, and discipline.

Communication styles can be defined as follows:

1. (a) Authoritarian—Gives expectations and guidance
2. (b) Promotional—Cultivates team spirit
3. (c) Facilitating—Gives guidance as required
4. (d) Conciliatory—Friendly and agreeable
5. (e) Judicial—Uses sound judgment
6. (f) Ethical—Honest, fair, by the book
7. (g) Secretive—Not open or outgoing
8. (h) Disruptive—Breaks apart unity of group, agitator
9. (i) Intimidating—“Tough guy,” can lower morale
10. (j) Combative—Eager to fight or be disagreeable

Typical communication processes can be described as follows:

1. (a) Communications planning (determining who needs what information, when, and how it will be given);
2. (b) Information distribution (determining what tool and techniques will be used to generate project records);
3. (c) Performance reporting (providing project records: correspondence, memos, meeting minutes; performance reports: time, scope, cost, performance envelope, risk; technical documents: change requests, scope, budget, schedule);
4. (d) Administrative closure (providing project archives, formal acceptance, documentation that the client or sponsor has accepted the product of the project (or phase) should be prepared and distributed; lessons learned: what went right, what went wrong, and what should be done differently the next time)

Fig. 4.1.1 shows the organizational arrangement of product and process teams; note that the teams should be located together.

A program team organizational structure (see Fig. 4.1.1), along with clear vision and missions, should be designed to produce first-time quality products delivered on schedule at the lowest practical lifecycle cost. The team should be committed to establishing standards of excellence as it proceeds with the program. This implies commitment to a Total Quality strategy.

The Integrated Product Development (IPD) effort will:

1. (a) Conduct all product definition analyses (e.g., engineering analysis, producibility, maintainability, reliability, inspectability, procurability, supportability, etc.) concurrently using a product development team to minimize program risks;
2. (b) Perform all product and process definition (e.g., design definition, tool definition, fabrication and assembly instructions, test requirements and procedures, quality inspection requirements, etc.) in parallel and in close coordination.

In addition, the IPD team should use the Baldrige National Quality Award criteria with Total Quality strategy to monitor the program for continuous improvement. The key measures will fall into eight categories:

1. 1. team training,
2. 2. team organizational structure,
3. 3. customer participation,
4. 4. supplier participation,
5. 5. team performance,
6. 6. team schedule,
7. 7. team information-sharing, and
8. 8. team leadership.

Effective program control uses high-performance communication. The most common ways we communicate are described in Fig. 4.2.1.

Types of communication are one-way, two-way, and one-to-many, as described in Fig. 4.2.2.

An Integrated Product Team (IPT) requires both vertical (see Fig. 4.2.3) and horizontal (see Fig. 4.2.4) communications. Communication in both directions is important in any organization. Leaders also need a communication plan in place during the execution phase. Keeping everyone informed is a critical process for program success. Communication of good news is always desirable but filtering out the bad news can be risky to a program, because it can backfire.