Within project management, communication is especially important, particularly in the beginning when the project starts.

The art of communication, is the language of leadership - James Humes

All of the planning involved in complex projects can get lost unless strong project management skills, experience and methodologies are used to turn those plans into a reality. No matter how strong your intentions, concepts and plans are, you will not get good results if your approach is then weak. Communication is key to ensuring the plans you have actually come to fruition. You have to communicate clearly and concisely about how you want communication to work on this project.

It is well known that communication issues are a leading cause of project failure. In fact, recent statistics tell us that one third of projects fail because of communication issues. That is enough of a stark warning for most to take very seriously. Communication is integral to ensuring all of your team members, your colleagues, your stakeholders and customers stay informed.

Types of Communication Within Project Management

Within project management, there are several types of communication that need to happen and these are:

  • Communicating information quickly to those who need it
  • Ensuring the correct information is sent to those who need it
  • Holding on to the right information
  • Forwarding the right information
  • Collecting the right information
  • Creating a communications plan
  • Ensuring everybody knows what is expected of them

All the time the PM should be thinking about the information they should be receiving, gathering and sending. This includes asking various members of the project how they would like communication. For example, a stakeholder may prefer one phone call a month for updates, whereas another might want weekly breakdowns. Forming an agreement at the beginning of the project with all members of the project on what will be sent and when is a great idea. All of your communication expectations, goals, needs and ideas can be formulated into a concise action plan called a communications plan.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place - George Bernard Shaw

Making a communication plan

When you have met with the customer first you can then meet with your team and stakeholders to talk about the communication plan for the project. During this time you can create a plan for the communication requirements and list the roles of various people within the project and the kinds of communication they should receive. If you want some quick help creating your own communications plan, check out this helpful YouTube video on how to create one.

If you've never made one before, there are some unknowns but the great thing is that you are making one which already places you at better odds for avoiding that scary one third project failure statistic we mentioned a moment ago. Usually, you can create a good plan in around 7 easy steps:

Think about the type of project you're working on

Your project understanding matters a lot in lots of ways but particularly with communication. Is it the most important project the company has taken on this year? Is it a mini-project that doesn't involve many people? Understanding this will help you gain a good understanding of the kind of communication you will need to provide to those in the project.

Think about the organisation you work for

Is it expected that you will share the status of your project regardless of how the project is doing? Does senior management always expect updates regardless? How detailed are communications expected to be? Does the company use apps or kanban to communicate (learn about kanban for project management)?

Who are the stakeholders?

Look at your stakeholder analysis and figure out if you can get in touch with everyone you need to. Finding unidentified stakeholders at this stage is really important so you can ensure they get the communications too.

Create communication goals

Why are you creating a communications plan? What does it mean to the project? What would you like to achieve through the communications you put in place? Maybe you want to gain support, keep people updated, send out information to get a response, and many other things.

How will you communicate?

Once you know what you want to achieve with your communication you can define how you will communicate. Maybe you want to let people know about the project and what it means, in which case communication will be all singing, all dancing, and reaching as many people as possible. If you're looking to let certain people know about the status of a project, it may be that the communications are more strategic and numbers oriented. If communications are to gain a response they can be more targeted and assertive.

Define how communication occurs

Make sure that everyone is on the same page. Ideally, there will be a central communications app which everybody can access. It should also be clear how communication is expected. Who expects phone calls and emails? Are those conversations to be logged to a central database? Is there any information off limits to certain people?

Make your plan

39% of projects fail due to lack of planning, and that includes planning communications. Now you have all the information you need to create a plan, you can go ahead and make one that is right for your project needs. This plan can include scheduling, timing and detailed communications organisation. Anything that needs booking in, like scheduled meetings, presentations or trips out of the office, get that organised now. You should also make sure at this stage that everybody understands what is expected of them so that you're all working together towards the same goals.

Communication - the human connection - is the key to personal and career success - Paul J Meyer

The importance of communication is massively underestimated. Don't make the mistake of assuming it will happen naturally. Why leave that room for error and risk when you could not only avoid issues but actively enhance your project with a great PM communications plan? The brightest project managers understand the importance of communication, creating effective communication plans for the benefit of their current project and future company projects.