Communicating Effectively

The following video shows what might happen to brave communicators, who really do not know how to get their message across the way they want it to be interpreted. Our blogging assignment for this week is to analyze the same message delivered three different ways, and to state how we responded to the message with each type of delivery. I do not believe any animals were really harmed in the making of this video, but proceed with caution because the animals are really cute.

Here is a screen shot of the message text that we saw in an email as shown, then heard in a voice mail message, and finally saw a video clip of a face to face delivery of the message.  

Image Taken From:  http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6145/03/mm/aoc/index.html

My first impression of the email message was that the writer, Jane, was facing an upcoming deadline and needed Mark to complete his task and get it to her so that she would meet meet her deadline. I sensed urgency in Jane’s email and that it might not have been the first contact that she had had with Mark requesting an ETA for his report, or more important some data so that she could work on her assignment.

My impression from the voice mail message was that Jane did not want an over the telephone confrontation with Mark, since she called knowing that he was in meetings all day.  Perhaps she knew if she talked to Mark, he would have come up with excuses, or maybe he talks a lot and she did not want to waste time, but wanted to get right to the point of what she needed him to do.

The face to face conversation seemed like the best way for Jane to let Mark know what she needed.  The fact that she was standing up looking over the cubicle wall led me to believe that he was sitting at his desk and available to listen or to respond.  Also Jane got right to the point, and she did not appear angry or upset, but seemed to be understanding Mark's work load when viewing her body language. She delivered the message to Mark in a calm manner.  She did not demand that he hand over the information right away, but gave him some breathing room by allowing him to send the data to her by email.

The factors that influenced how I perceived the messages include my own communication strategies.  Often times I will send an email because I can BBC copies to either myself, or someone with more authority who I want to document my communication with, or to another interested party.  I also use email when I do not want to be on the telephone for a long amount of time, or have the time to meet with the person face-to-face.  Often times in my emails I ask to set up a time when we can talk over the phone, or meet face to face (including the amount of time I need).

I do not like to waste time talking on the telephone at work, so I might do what Jane did, and leave a detailed message, so that I am not interrupted when there is something important that I can leave in a 1-2 minute message.  That way the listener can choose how he or she wants to respond, and we do not get side tracked.

When Jane met with Mark face to face it did not seem that she caught him off guard, and when I need to discuss something with a colleague face to face, I will stop by to see if they are in their office, or call first to see if it is okay to stop by before showing up.  I will not show up at a colleague’s desk and demand something from them at that moment. They usually know what I need prior to my visit.

Authors Portney, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer write about formal and informal communication in Chapter 10 of their book (2008).  All of Jane’s messages were of an informal nature, but for documentation purposes the email would have been the better in my opinion.  I would have also kept a log of the voice mail message, and the face to face conversation.  By the nature of the content of the message I would hope that Mark was aware of his responsibilities as part of the project team, and that he was in the communication loop for updates to project deadlines (Portney et al, 2008).

These three forms of communication with the same message have shown the importance of all team members being aware of their role on the team and the sequencing of tasks along with due dates (Portney et al, 2008).  There should also be some line of leadership, so that individuals on the same team can avoid confrontations with each other and keep a working relationship in tact (Portney et al, 2008).

References

Laureate.  (n.d.) The art of effective communication. [Multimedia Program].  Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6145/03/mm/aoc/index.html

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Reputeagency.  (2010, October 5).  A guide to effective communication.  [Video file]  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwjAAgGi-90

Post-Mortem Analysis of a Project Idea That Failed When Put Into Action

Approximately five years ago our administrators wanted the staff to come up with 5 success skills that both staff and students would focus on, and we would develop a one semester long course for our students to take, with each unit detailing one of the skills.  I was on the team that would roll out their skill first, and we did not have a lot of time to complete it, but there are a lot of over achievers where I work and we did meet the deadline.  The five skills are:  Initiative, Responsibility, Communication, Teamwork, and Commitment.  At the time we were working on this course, we were also having a new school constructed.  It was an exciting time, but very stressful since school was still in session.

All of the course creators wanted the course to count as elective credits, but the administrators did not think the course had enough rigor to be a stand alone elective.  The name of the course was Success Skills.  Each unit during the first semester of the following year we were going to require all students to take one of the 5 skills packets of work, and complete it, and meet with their facilitator to discuss it and review their work in it.  The rollout of the Success Skills was to be a part of the opening of the new school.

The staff's concerns were that it would be difficult to get the students to complete the work due to the main fact that our students are focused on credits.  They do not want to do extra work with no reward.  We used volunteers from our ASB Leadership (Associated Student Body) class to test the course and got feedback from them at meetings where new units for the course were presented and staff members were divided into groups to go through one activity in the packet and present their findings.  The students worked along with the staff members.

The students were honest in giving their feedback about the course and most liked it but said if it had no course credits assigned to it they would not want to do the work.  Administration made it mandatory for us to assign the course the following school year even though the staff who had to create the course believed what the ASB students said about the course.

It was a shame to see so much effort not make it past 2 or 3 units, and to reach the full potential that it could have reached.  Now that I know more about pre-planning a project and listening to your stakeholders, I can see the mistakes that were made by the project managers (higher level administrators) for this course.  It is difficult to believe that higher level administrators for schools can lose touch with how students think so fast.  Our ASB students volunteer countless hours of time on campus to plan and run lunch time events, fund raisers, and attend strategic planning sessions where we need to represent the student population.  They are mostly over achievers, and did take the Success Skills course as part of their ASB grade.  However, they said other students would not take it without some sort of reward; preferably course credits.

I had some success with students completing the work by counting it as extra credit in their English packet work.  As long as they were getting something for their efforts they were not as reluctant or did not completely refuse to do the work, at least for the first 2 units.

The chart below demonstrates some of the positive and negative outcomes. "Post Mortem” Review Questions found on pages 42–43 of The Project Management Minimalist. Just enough PM to Rock Your Projects! were used as a guide to format the chart.

Positive and Negative Outcomes to the Design of the Success Skills Course

Positive	Negative
Teamwork in designing each unit	Administration gave the assignment, and deadlines, but did not participate in creating the units.
A well balanced set of activities	Administration would not allow a full course to be created adding elective credits.
Approximately 12 hours of work to complete	Students did not complete all of the assignments.
One person in the Unit group was given the leadership duties.	Once the unit was tested by staff and students no changes were made.
All units were ready by the due dates.	Staff was expected to have all students complete all the packets despite objections.

Looking back at this experience with the knowledge I have about planning projects, it seems that this one was doomed from the early stages. There was not an established need for the course to begin with, especially since it was not being created as a required elective with credits for all students. On pages 30 and 31 of the book, Project Management: Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling Projects, the authors talk about defining projects, including what the need is for the project, and what the expected outcomes are. There must be a valid reason and that reason should be understood and agreed upon by the decision makers involved before the work on the project begins (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008).  In the case of the Success Skills Course; once it was discovered that it was not really a valid course, but perceived as busy work by the students, there was no real need or reason for the facilitators to assign the extra work.

References

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

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Happy New Course and New Year-2015!

Welcome blog readers from EDUC-6145-3 Project Management in Ed & Training!

This is Gayle, and it is nice to be posting on my blog again.  Let me know if you have any difficulties following this blog.  I look forward to visiting your blogs, too, so be sure to give a link back to them. This is going to be a quick post, but I thought I would leave you with some Project Management cartoons I found around the internet.