There is nothing wrong with under-communication in projects
Communicating clearly can be surprisingly hard work. Reducing under-communication is a major goal for all businesses, especially now that we are several months into the COVID-19 crisis. Most leaders need to communicate to staff far more often than they think is necessary, according to a recent study. Leaders must continue to provide confidence of attitude, clarity of plan, and transparency of performance to help people weather this crisis and emerge stronger and more resilient.
“Infrequent communication increases fear and uncertainty.”
“Under-communication leaves a gaping hole that employees and managers alike will attempt to fill with speculation.”
In projects, uncertainty over the assigned job whether this has to do with goals that have not been defined clearly or assumptions that have not been communicated as much as the team needed, reduces the efficiency with which skills can be allocated to their best use.
How is then keeping an open flow of communication possible?
- Getting together as a team on a regular basis is one of the best ways to create a professional environment in which all team members feel comfortable communicating with each other.
Yes, but what if you are not meeting on a regular basis? Can it be that the PM tries to improve the time efficiency of the team project? Am I speculating?
Technology is key when it comes to improving the time efficiency of team projects. Jira is perfect for team collaboration.
Indeed, following up your teammates’ logs on Jira cuts down on time wasted, improves processes, eliminates redundancy, eliminates overlap and improves procedures being conducted.
At the time of Covid-19, urgency and uncertainty, are traded off; urgency requires putting resources in place but at the cost of communication.
So, what if there’s under-communication? Even parents ignore their baby’s cry sometimes and there’s nothing wrong with that either.
Something else to bear in mind is that parenting skills can be of good use to Project managers, based on this article by Eric Spiegel. Some managers might even need a parent, to teach them how to develop their social skills.
Not only is under-communication necessary, but it also provides benefits for the project. Just think of the various ways that team meetings can hinder a project:
- When it comes to defining the best way forward, technical team members typically lack the social skills necessary to provide their perspective and contribute to the discussion.
- To deal with the above issue, the project manager issues orders to the team members. In the end, they are not challenged to think for themselves and even to think creatively. They just need to comply with the order.
- Overtime, people become habitual. Each member of the group (let’s not call them a team anymore) develops a habitual response that involves little conscious processing. Some people issue orders, some others wait for orders.
It has been established that such a behavior promotes a prevention focus which leads an individual to avoid difficult goals.
On the other hand, when under-communication thrives, people can provide their own perspective to their work — lets not forget that working on your own increases autonomy which is an important means of establishing and strengthening self-efficacy. I must be speculating again…
Maybe feeling uncertain is the road back to the creative self.
If you are a PM and you feel uncertain, there is communication guidance available to project managers, in the A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). The communication management processes in PMBOK® Guide identify the activities needed to “ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval, and ultimate disposition of project information”.
Clingon. Or, as I call it, PMBOK-ish.
Human communication usually has one of three basic purposes: to educate or inform, to relate, or to influence.
And project managers need to remember that their power to pull together, lead, and motivate their team hinges on their ability to influence. Such communication has high emotional content which is better to be delivered in person — by teleconferencing. Preferably regular meetings. At least this is what I know works for me.
Some articles to read and think of how and why we need to try to communicate more frequently at work and build relationships:
