Communication types

There are clearly many different ways to communicate as part of this weeks assignment we saw the same message delivered 3 ways, via email, voicemail and face to face. The person receiving the message translates each of these communication methods differently.

The email in our small case study seemed to be wordy and insincere. There are three types of emails that I send, “The first is the quick or low priority response. I send things I hope will just be immediately deleted or read whenever. The second is documentation. When I want to layout something that someone can refer to in the future, I'll send an email so that they can easily save the information however they like. The third is when I want to be on record”. (Ramsey, 2008) It was clear that an email asking for the information didn’t fit into any of the above options. It was have been an email or file that Jane needed from Mark, but the original request didn’t have to be an email.

I think that voicemail communication from the standpoint of phone tag isn’t the best approach to communication. If it’s voicemail system then that maybe better. Also with either system it seems like the information given like in an email will make or break the message. For example if the voicemail message is “call me”, why didn’t you email or text me that message? Voicemail does have the advantage of sincerity, and being able to hear the persons voice and emotions. All to often we try and put “emotion” in emails and in type with things like LOL or OMG. LOL will never replace a sarcastic comment that is followed by an LOL. For example, if I send an email to my boss on a project status update and ask him “Are you done with that file yet, it’s taking forever for you to get me that information, LOL!!” That may not come across as sarcasm in an email like it would in a voicemail.

Face-to-Face communication has the lowest chance of misinterpretation, in the example for this week it was apparent that Jane was actually aim to be very open and sincere. Her goal was to truly get a status update not to really push Mark to complete something fast then possible. The emphasis in the email and voicemail seem to be on Jane need to complete her assignment. With the f2f it seemed more laid back just looking for an update. “Face-to-face communication has nuances that electronic communication will never have. I knew I'd be able to express an easily misunderstood point much more clearly in person.” (Ramsey, 2008)

Overall, I think that it flows smoothly and clearly from email to F2F communication for how emotions can be misinterpreted. Also it seems based off of my professional experiences it’s easy to type an emotional email and then hit send and regret putting the information into text. Emotions tend to stay in check more with voicemail, phone calls and F2F communication.

References:

Multimedia Program: "The Art of Effective Communication", Laureate Inc. 2010

Ramsey, J. (2008, July 14). Communication - Phone vs. Email vs. Voicemail.... (Staying Sane - Organization in a Digital World). Allegheny College: Webpub. Retrieved March 17, 2011, from http://webpub.allegheny.edu/dept/com

Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”

From October through mid December I was the lead trainer on complex building integration project. This project was part of larger corporate initiative to integrate another office supplies company that was bought out by my employer in July of 2008.

Overall, my project was a huge success! It was seen as one of the smoothest conversations/integration to date. Part of the reasons for success was that I had been a team member is several similar projects across the country and as part of those projects we did the post mortem project review.

Indirectly we did answer a lot of the question that are in Greer’s book The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! as part of our post mortem review. I think it’s imperative to ask questions as state by Greer like:

· What was the single most frustrating part of our project?

· How would you do things differently next time to avoid this frustration?

· Which of our methods or processes worked particularly well?

· Which of our methods or processes were difficult or frustrating to use?

· If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about the project, what would you change?

(2010 p. 42)

The answers to the above questions outline a clear and successful plan for my manager and I to follow for our project.

One example of this would be, based off of previous project the physical inventory training tended to be a little confusing for the learn to comprehend. In the past it was delivered 1 hour prior to the associate going out and starting the process. The goal had been to deliver the training as close to the time need so there would be no lose in information retention. The take away was that it also only gave them one shot to learn a complex process with no practice activities or hand on experience.

My idea was to create a hands on practice activity that was done several times throughout the week leading up the physical inventory. The results were clear and undeniable that the ROI was well worth it. The inventory was the most accurate to date, and the learner time to mastery was a quarter of the time that it was in the past.

The success of my project was directly related to the success and failure of other projects. Being able to learn via a post-mortem review process exactly what could be better and also worked is imperative!

References:

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.