Effective Communication

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Communication is the key to success. The lack of communication can cause things in life to get very complicated and difficult unnecessarily. This week we had the pleasure of listening to the same message in three different mediums. People can easily misinterpret a message that is sent through the various mediums of communication. The key to successful project management is effective communication-sharing the right messages with the right people in a timely manner (Portny, et al, 2008, p. 357).  When watching the multimedia program "The Art of Effective Communication" my perception or view of the message being sent changed each time it was presented through a different medium. The first message that I viewed was through email.  At a first glance of the email, I thought the email came across as unfriendly, and impatient. I got the sense that she was irritated and border line angry. Email can become impersonal or misunderstood (passioncomputing.com, 2010).  Her email was clear in terms of what she needed, however I think the element of compassion was lacking in this instance.



I then listened to the voicemail. I have to say that when I heard the voicemail it completely changed my perception of her mood when she created the message. The email didn't have any tone so the perception rendered impatient, and unfriendly. The voicemail let me know that she was really just asking for what she needed. Her voice sounded calm and friendly. I would also like to add that she sounded professional. The face to face method is the one that sold me completely. The tone in her voice was calm and collective. Her body language showed that she was calm and the smile at the end of the message was equivalent to the icing on cake.


The face to face method conveyed the message most effectively. While the other two mediums are acceptable forms of business communication, the message is still left up in the air for interpretation. It would be much more helpful to just speak to the person face to face. This way, you can perceive the whole picture in real time. You can pick up on nonverbal cues. With a busy work day normally it is difficult sometimes to even find the time to meet with someone face to face to have personal discussion. However, in the long term, face-to-face communication just might assure that communication is clear and understood (Martin, 2007).  Technology is a blessing and a curse. Two of the mediums still leave room for interpretation. The PM needs to ensure that the messages received  are not misunderstood but are indeed clear and concise. The most efficient thing for the PM to do is to  hold weekly meetings to convey information to the team.


References

Martin, C. (2007). The Importance of Face-to-Face Communication at Work. Retrieved September 20, 2012 from  http://www.cio.com/article/29898/The_Importance_of_Face_to_Face_Communication_at_Wor            k?page=1&taxonomyId=3154

Passioncomputing.com. (2010). Using Email Effectively. Retrieved  September 20, 2012 from http://www.passioncomputing.com.au/Copywriting/Using-email


Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.




3 Responses to “Effective Communication”

  1. Brandon,
    Business relationships, especially those between superiors and subordinates, are often rocky due to poor communication, a lack or misinterpretation of facts, pressurized environments, and a mutual commitment to success (Lewis, 2013)
    You are so right about technology being a blessing and a curse. Weekly meetings would be a great way to keep all team members on the same page. My first thought was team meetings would only work if the team was located at the same facilitiy, but that is not true. With today's technology web conferences are an easy method for over coming the global buisness.
    Donna

    Lewis, M. (2014). 10 tips to develop effective workplace communication skills. Retrieved from http://www.moneycrashers.com/effective-workplace-communication-skills/

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  2. Hi Brandon,

    Like you I perceived the voicemail as being professional, and I also thought it was the most effective. In the F2F encounter, I thought Jane came across as unsure and nervous, smiling nervously and too much. Part of the problem lies in the text of the message itself, while we know that Jane needs the report from Mark or at least some of the data for her own report, we don't know the timeframe. Is Jane's report due in two days or two weeks? A more complete message would be of greater value regardless of the medium used to convey the message.

    I came across a mnemonic that may be helpful – PASS (Riddle, 2012) to quote the article:

    The four questions the PASS process asks are:

    • P for Purpose – What is the purpose of your email?
    • A for Action – What action needs to result from your email? Does it have a due date?
    • S for Support – What supporting documentation needs to be attached to your communication?
    • S for Summary – Have you successfully summarized your email message in the subject line?

    Only after successfully evaluating each of these questions should you click the infamous “send” button. Let’s look at them a little closer.

    Reference

    Riddle, J. (2012, December 1). Awesomely Effective Email Communication. Retrieved from the WorkAwesome site http://workawesome.com/communication/effective-email-communication/

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  3. You said it "technology is a blessing and a curse." I prefer the F2F interaction so there is no room to wonder what was meant by that word or phrase. I like to see facial expressions along with the tone which brings it all together for me. Email is great as a paper trail that you can look back on to remember, but there is so much room for something small to turn into something big when it is not taken the way it was intended. There have been countless times that I have read an email and wondered, what did he/she mean by this? Working as a teacher and communicating, almost exclusively, via email with parents is difficult. You have to know what you want to say and be able to put it in a way that you hope and pray they will understand and not take the wrong way. The paper trail - good and bad.

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