Read any project "lessons learnt" report and it will say "We
should have had better communication". Read any book on business
change and it will say you have to concentrate on "communication,
communication, communication". Listen to any politician and they
will always complain that their "message is just not getting
across".
The simple fact is that everyone knows that communication is a
key element not only in projects, but in our daily lives.
Communication is basically "the sharing of information". However,
when it comes to actually communicating, very little credence is
given to it. It is always something that "someone else does", or
"we can send out an e-mail", or "nothing has been agreed yet", or
"put it on the SharePoint".
In project terms, it becomes a job, a chore, a nuisance,
something that we have not got time for, something that we cannot
do yet or something that can wait. However, whilst waiting, those
people impacted by any project or change (stakeholders) will always
assume the worst, make their own things up and spread rumour and
doubt. Thus "not communicating", becomes a communication in its own
right.
The first communication hurdle to jump, therefore, is to
convince your project or
change programme, that communication is a vital element for
success. Ah yes, success! Defining success, measuring success,
celebrating success and communicating success is also important,
but a topic for another time. To convince your project that
communication is vital, you can explain that communication is:
The top lesson learnt from any change
programme
- One of the top five challenges to change programmes
- Fundamental to business change success
- Fundamental to winning stakeholder heads, hearts and hands
- Used to inform, involve and influence
- Used to get stakeholders to take action
- Used to reduce resistance to change
- Used to set expectations and prepare stakeholders
OK, so now your project is convinced that communication is vital
and they have even appointed a communication manager. We now need
to deliver on that expectation, so we need to ensure that we
communicate properly and that our project lessons learnt report
does not say "We should have had better communication".
Communicating properly is easier said than done. There are usually
many stakeholders, who all have different desires, different
questions and different needs. Osmo Wiio (born 1928), a Finnish
Researcher of human communication held a number of beliefs on
communication, including "The more important the communication, the
more likely you are to forget an essential piece of
information."
So you can see that there are a number of pitfalls waiting for
any communication manager out there. All we can do then is to
ensure that we carry out a few basic rules to maximise our chances
of "successful communication". Firstly, analyse your stakeholders
and your communication vehicles and determine who likes information
in what format. Then, when planning communications, ask yourself
the following questions:
- What is my intended message or outcome?
- Who is my audience?
- How will I communicate?
- When will I communicate?
- What will I do to check the understanding or to get
feedback?
Finally, you now need a "congruent" communication plan. This
means that communication will be clear, consistent and concord.
There you have it then. Communication is vital for the success of
change programmes addresses stakeholders needs utilises a range of
communication vehicles and channels needs a congruent plan and is
supported by senior sponsors/management by both words and
deeds.
itSMF UK as the voice for
ITIL and service management depends on effective communication
to keep its membership informed. A cornerstone is the annual
conference where it is expected that more than 1,000 members will
converge to discuss and debate issues around people and processes
along with the latest innovations in technology - the above article
is based on one of the seminars within the "Real people stream:
realcommunication, planning for real people, in real world
projects", to be presented by John McDermott and Trevor Pullen of
Hewlett-Packard who are both actively involved with itSMF UK.
The
itSMF UK Conference and Exhibition takes place in Birmingham on
10-12 November.