Communication during change projects

[jfez]

I am always amazed by how ineffectual some people's idea of worthwhile communication can be during the life of a project. I've had to lead some change management projects over the years and I'm almost obsessed with making sure that everyone who needs to know something does so, at the right time and actually understands it. Makes your job a lot easier and saves you a load of hassle. Some people just don't seem to get it and don't seem to understand that there are different ways to communicate with different groups of people which are more effective. I've recently been involved in a project and none of us ever seem to have been told what we needed to so everything was left to the last minute and it was a miracle that the whole thing didn't go down the pan. I did some change management for a large insurance firm where round robin emails were fine for basic details because everyone was sitting at their desks reading emails all day. I also did some work for a healthcare provider where sending emails was as good as useless because nurses rarely have time to read emails! I take it there are others who have experienced the same thing. This article makes the point pretty well and may help. Spread the word around as it makes everyone's life a lot easier when everyone knows what they should be doing.

 

[KM-Tiger]

But aren't you attacking the symptom rather than the cause?

Successful projects always have good stakeholder engagement, and it's that that is the key, not communication in itself.

 

[jfez]

Hi KM-Tiger. I agree that stakeholder engagement is the most important thing otherwise many projects don't work. It is precisely because of this that the communication is so important. If only 10 people need to know the details you're fine as you can get them all around one table. If, however, you're instituting a system which needs 1000 people to all understand it then the method you use to communicate with them becomes more important. I have seen people who should have been stakeholders in projects not even realise they were because the communication down the line has been so poor. Difficult for them to engage when they do not have the required information.