Project Communications Planning is a process that is continuous throughout a project. When building your initial Project Communications plan focus on the following:
Define Your Audiences - Who needs to know What, and When and How do they need to know it. Communication needs and audiences will change as the project moves forward. Plan for it.
Start from the Top and Work Your Way Down the Chain - Start your Communications with the highest levels of the organization first, then work your way down to the team members. Repeat this cycle.
Target Your Message to the Different Groups - Different groups (and sometimes individuals) may require different types of communications media (e-mail, status reports, web site, face-to-face, memo, etc.). Plan for these different types of communications vehicles up front.
Define Roles and Responsibilities - Ensure that your Project Communications Plan includes Roles and Responsibilities for key stakeholders.
Status Reports - Status Reports are a great form of Project Communication if kept short and to the point.
Repetitive Messages will be Required - The same message delivered using different mechanisms and sources will help to reinforce your message.
Anticipate Conflict - Tailor your communications to overcome Conflict before it occurs. Keep in mind that Conflict will always occur on a project. Conflict needs to be anticipated and managed continuously throughout the project.
Allow for Anonymous Feedback - Create a way for people to relay their positive and negative feedback anonymously.
Project Managers need to recognize that good communication is important because it helps to reduce conflict, increases information distribution, and helps to silence critics while reinforcing the positive aspects of your project.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Get the Right Talent on Your Team
Years ago I managed a large group of software engineers. At the time, it was very difficult to recruit software engineers from here in the United States, so we started sponsoring talent from overseas (China, Russia, India, etc.) and bringing them here to work. When the economy recovers the IT sector may again have to look overseas to fill many software developer and IT vacancies. There just aren’t computer science majors coming out of American universities to satisfy the current and upcoming demand.
My point is corporations will either have to outsource IT jobs to other countries or look to bring in talent from other countries using an immigration lawyer if they can’t find the right talent within our own borders. The same principles apply to your project teams. If you don’t have the right talent in your company for your project team, consider looking to outside contractors or consultants to fill these roles.
I believe that outsourcing jobs overseas or bringing in workers from outside your borders shouldn’t occur except as a last resort. Having said that, I also realize that companies can’t grow if they can’t hire the right talent. Never settle for what is available when staffing your project teams. If you can’t find what you need within your company don’t be afraid to look externally. The job you save may be your own.
My point is corporations will either have to outsource IT jobs to other countries or look to bring in talent from other countries using an immigration lawyer if they can’t find the right talent within our own borders. The same principles apply to your project teams. If you don’t have the right talent in your company for your project team, consider looking to outside contractors or consultants to fill these roles.
I believe that outsourcing jobs overseas or bringing in workers from outside your borders shouldn’t occur except as a last resort. Having said that, I also realize that companies can’t grow if they can’t hire the right talent. Never settle for what is available when staffing your project teams. If you can’t find what you need within your company don’t be afraid to look externally. The job you save may be your own.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Some Great Quotes!
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”—Helen Keller
“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”— James Dean
“The two most powerful things in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.”— Ken Langone, founder, Home Depot
“The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.”— William James
“Don’t belittle!” — OD Consultant, on the essence of a well-functioning human community
“If you don’t listen, you don’t sell anything.”— Carolyn Marland/MD/Guardian Group
“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.” —Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
“What creates trust, in the end, is the leader’s manifest respect for the followers.” — Jim O’Toole, Leading Change
“If you can’t state your position in eight words or less, you don’t have a position.” —Seth Godin
“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead
“Make your life itself a creative work of art.” —Mike Ray, The Highest Goal
“Have you invested as much this year in your career as in your car?” —Molly Sargent, OD consultant and trainer
“The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.” —James Yorke, Mathematician, on chaos theory in The New Scientist
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” —Oscar Wilde
“People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they’re really proud of, that they’ll fight for, sacrifice for, that they trust.”—Howard Schultz, Starbucks
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” —Charles Darwin
“We may not be interested in chaos but chaos is interested in us.” —Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century
“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”—General Eric Shinseki, retired Chief of Staff, U. S. Army
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”—Gandhi
“We eat change for breakfast!”—Harry Quadracci, founder, QuadGraphics
“If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” —Mario Andretti
“You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.” —Jack Welch, retired CEO, GE
“We have a ‘strategic’ plan. It’s called doing things.”—Herb Kelleher, founder, Southwest Airlines
“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.” —The Shawshank Redemption (Tim Robbins)
“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”—Steve Jobs, Apple
“Groups become great only when everyone in them, leaders and members alike, is free to do his or her absolute best.”—Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius
“The best thing a leader can do for a Great Group is to allow its members to discover their greatness.”—Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius
“You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not.”—Isabel Allende
“Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be exceptional.” —Mark Sanborn, The Fred Factor
“A leader is a dealer in hope.”—Napoleon
“Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it". Michelangelo
“If you’re enthusiastic about the things you’re working on, people will come ask you to do interesting things.” —James Woolsey, former CIA director
“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.” —Winston Churchill
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."—John Quincy Adams
“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”—Karen Lamb
“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”—Helen Keller
“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”— James Dean
“The two most powerful things in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.”— Ken Langone, founder, Home Depot
“The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.”— William James
“Don’t belittle!” — OD Consultant, on the essence of a well-functioning human community
“If you don’t listen, you don’t sell anything.”— Carolyn Marland/MD/Guardian Group
“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.” —Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
“What creates trust, in the end, is the leader’s manifest respect for the followers.” — Jim O’Toole, Leading Change
“If you can’t state your position in eight words or less, you don’t have a position.” —Seth Godin
“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead
“Make your life itself a creative work of art.” —Mike Ray, The Highest Goal
“Have you invested as much this year in your career as in your car?” —Molly Sargent, OD consultant and trainer
“The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.” —James Yorke, Mathematician, on chaos theory in The New Scientist
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” —Oscar Wilde
“People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they’re really proud of, that they’ll fight for, sacrifice for, that they trust.”—Howard Schultz, Starbucks
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” —Charles Darwin
“We may not be interested in chaos but chaos is interested in us.” —Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century
“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”—General Eric Shinseki, retired Chief of Staff, U. S. Army
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”—Gandhi
“We eat change for breakfast!”—Harry Quadracci, founder, QuadGraphics
“If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” —Mario Andretti
“You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.” —Jack Welch, retired CEO, GE
“We have a ‘strategic’ plan. It’s called doing things.”—Herb Kelleher, founder, Southwest Airlines
“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.” —The Shawshank Redemption (Tim Robbins)
“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”—Steve Jobs, Apple
“Groups become great only when everyone in them, leaders and members alike, is free to do his or her absolute best.”—Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius
“The best thing a leader can do for a Great Group is to allow its members to discover their greatness.”—Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius
“You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not.”—Isabel Allende
“Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be exceptional.” —Mark Sanborn, The Fred Factor
“A leader is a dealer in hope.”—Napoleon
“Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it". Michelangelo
“If you’re enthusiastic about the things you’re working on, people will come ask you to do interesting things.” —James Woolsey, former CIA director
“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.” —Winston Churchill
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."—John Quincy Adams
“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”—Karen Lamb