Project Communication

Project communication is such communication among participants and stakeholders within work on project leading to attainment of required project eventual result and project objective carrying out. Effective communication is an indispensable result for network-centric structure of the project by LMP method.

One little remark right away – issues from this articles tend to those types of project communication only that imply textual information exchange by means of words and sentences (communication) with no relation to its form: oral or written.

What takes place when communicating? We exchange words and sentences expressed on a certain language, by transmitting in such a way our thoughts to another man.

Our personal reality is described by words we know and use for different things naming, as well as their properties, and phenomena or relationships and etc. We use words on a certain language for communication, and the language comes here out as the system with some word combinations having common interpretation due to mutual agreement. The language represents the foundation for our thinking – it lets collecting, processing, storing and distributing information about our own personal reality. Communication and interaction is the principal function of the language.

When describing the reality, it doesn’t change itself. It is always the one. What really changes is the meaning and sense of words the reality is described with. Just a simple phrase like «It’s raining» may describe in such a way totally different personal realities of two different people. The one implies under «rain» - freshness, nature renewal, calmness, when the other – dampness, sadness, discomfort. It turns out that words are used not only for reality description, but also they help us to create ourselves.

How does it occur? By means of content and meaning we put into the words. For each man a word is a container could be filled with its own personal content and meaning. Stuffing of such a container always changes. Maturing, we get different explanations from other people on meaning and sense of one or another word. And then, we start filling these words-containers with experience, understanding, and suffered feelings. In result, one and the same word can hide an entire world in one’s mind, and just a simple title for a certain thing in another’s.

What happens, when there are or there are not words in the language, in someone’s vocabulary? Working with material reality surrounding us with its entity of real objects, it’s easier to apprehend those things which have their verbal expressions. Other things and objects will be likely to be left behind perception and understanding, so far as less attention is paid on them. If considered from the other side of reality – reality of relationships and phenomena which is much more abstract by nature – so those phenomena and relations, which have no title, will be, left unnoticed at all. It’s hardly possible to identify a mistake in management, if there is no appropriate term in vocabulary. And, therefore, the unnoticed mistake can be hardly corrected.

Meaning content becomes geometrically complicated, if concerned about word combinations – sentences. A word comes out here as element of a certain construction set permitting to create endless number of combinations.

Human information perception and thinking are directly related with the language he speaks. By that, the lack of words tightens human thinking. How much differently interpretable sets of sentences can be composed from two words?  And now what if these words number counts two thousands? Introduction of new words changes thinking by widening possible variable combinations destined for depiction of one’s personal reality borders.

What does communication represent? Evidently, information exchange without distortions. What’s important in communication regarding attainment of the required eventual result of the project? Important is the correct formulation and perception of information about the general changes and alteration models, managerial influence, transferring of this information without distortions.

Let’s try to describe communication process within the project accomplishment, relying on the background above-mentioned. At anytime, since the project implementation has been launched, all project activities are run through by communication flows which can be represented as both causes and consequences of these activities. The information incoming under words and sentences can impel a managerial influence, but again embodied in the form of words.

What happens when information exchange in the course of any communication?

Let’s imagine that one participant of your project wants to bring some idea to another participant. And by that he pronounces certain word combination having in his understanding a concrete meaning. The other participant receives the combination of empty vessels, and what he does is that he fills them with his own meaning and content. That’s how communication goes, in the matter of fact. Project communication flows are not exception. People transfer emptiness placed within the borders of words-containers and their combinations. And here we admit that the other participant of the project must have hardly understood us or filled our words with his own personal meaning.  What’s more complicated is to accept that we also filled words-containers with our own meaning when they transferring to us.  And what is more probable is that we also poured out «foreign» – but  in the matter of fact – true meaning and content when receiving containers from our interlocutor.

To make sure that he got our words correctly that is – in the form of what we really meant, we try to define what he did understand when receiving our information. And he pronounces aloud the words-containers he has just received from us. We get that and again fill with the same – our own – meaning.  And – what’s interesting in result – we make sure that our interlocutor understood what we said. But, actually, we just made an exchange using the very same empty words-containers.

In case of project realization, unlike usual life, situation turns out to be spicy – because the project is aimed on a concrete result or the set objective attainment. How can it be achievable, if in its early beginning there emerges for different participants and stakeholders some incorrectness in meaning and sense in definition of the project objective?

Qualitative project management is rested also upon knowledge and comprehension of how we think, realize the reality, how we remember and transfer information.

Relying on the above-mentioned, it can be affirmed that the key to effective communication within any project realization lays in closer synchronization of understanding, in mutual approach and integration of project participants’ and stakeholders’ realities, in creation within the project of single semantic and sense reality which will serve as a basis for all following project communication. And what is unpredictable and what has no guaranties is that in the beginning of a project there is identical understanding of words by all people taking part in the project. It’s to be checked surely that all mutual arrangements are concluded about meaning of all the words necessary for effective project accomplishment. These arrangements can be reached by means of immense methods. Those which are mostly effective are simple enough: regular meetings, business games, seminars, and trainings.

Synchronizing the understanding, updating, altering and supplementing our professional language, and correcting content and meaning of words and word combinations, it’s able to achieve really effective communication within the project. When information exchange, this one transferred and received with minimal distortions and comprehended correctly will enable adequate managerial influences, being based on right strategic context, and what’s more – information about the plan of necessary changes will provoke right actions. And finally, in that way it seems to be more probable that project will have gained success.