Project communication: communication with teams at home and offshore presented at Project Challenge 2014

Communications - Local and Offshore

Ann Pilkington and Russel JamiesonAPM People SIG

Project Challenge March 2014

A Quick Introduction - Russel 20+ years PM experience, primarily in

– Financial Services

– Telecommunications

APM People Specific Interest Group (SIG) Chair

APM Wessex Branch Committee

APM Nominations Committee

APM National Awards Committee Deputy Chair

Registered Project Professional (RPP)

Fellow of APM (FAPM)

PRINCE2, MSP and AIM Practitioner

Winning mentor last 2 years for Student PM Challenge!

Manchester United member (suffering badly this season )

Appeared on Page 3 of The Sun…No, alongside!

Quoted in Sunday Times editorial…Interesting!

Yes…I have project managed a failed project…Or have I?

Twitter @[email protected]

Examples of Where (Overseas)

United States of America

Malaysia

India

South Africa

Quick Wins

• Email signatures and ‘Directory’ entries

• Full job title

• Office address

• Landline number

• Mobile number

• ‘Golden’ Hours

• Common times, if any, when employees across time zones are available together

• Politely ask ALL teams to only take breaks when they fall outside of the 'golden’ hours to maximise available time together

Quick Wins

• Always quote the same customers time zone e.g. UK – USA – AUSTRALIA…

• Email content

• DO provide full details of what you want and why 

• DO provide business justification 

• DO provide all references and key contact you have been speaking to

• DO ensure ‘subject’ reflects the contents e.g. Release AK – Story ABCDE–12345

• DO NOT rely on people figuring it out from a massive mail chain you have forwarded

• DO NOT email if you can talk – it’s good to talk!

Quick Wins - Understand

When ‘Yes’ could mean ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or even ‘Maybe’

Ethnic Group

Religion

Language

Handshake

Presentation of Business Card

Concept of Face

Do’s and Don'ts

Names

Official Titles

Useful Phrases

Useful Websites

Costs – Offshore versus Onshore

• Be involved from inception…not after procurement…easier said than done!

• Beware of the ‘bean-counters’!

• Beware of offshoring at the expense of lost ‘in-house’ expertise

• Make sure that ‘Day 1’ savings aren’t out-weighed by ‘Days 2, 3 & 4’ costs of re-work

A Quick Introduction - Ann PR and communication – more than 25 years – agh!

Journalist, PR, internal communicator

Now project communication specialist and trainer

Author of ‘Communicating Projects’ published by Gower

Founder and Director of PR Academy – training in PR and communication

Deliver PM for PR course

Designed and about to launch course in project communication

Worked at programme level on major central Government change initiatives: ERP and shared services

Twitter @AcademyAnn

[email protected]

Communication and employee engagement.

How can they help your project?

Passengers must carry dogs on

escalators

Customer information

What is communication?

The response you get back

The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished

George Bernard Shaw

Engagement: a definition

MacLeod and Clarke conclude that “we believe it is most helpful to see employee engagement as a workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of well-being” (italics added).

CO

MM

UN

ICAT

ION

Engagement

ENGAGING

MANAGERS

Facilitate and

empower.

VOICE views are

sought out; people

see that their

opinions count.

INTEGRITY

Behaviour is

consistent with

stated values.

MacLeod and Clarke (2009) Engaging for Success

LEADERSHIP

Provides a strong

strategic narrative.

Feeling really well informed.

ProfessionalTimely, clear, accurate, pertinent, consistent, sincere, concise, business-like. Reinforces believable values and narrative.

PropagandaContent is biased and does not reflect reality.

Reinforced by managers who

show commitment to the project

Upward feedback

AdvancedBased on people feeling well informed in the first place, face to face, actions taken as a result or reasons why action not taken provided.

BasicSurveys, suggestion schemes, email boxes.

Reinforced by managers who are

open to critical feedback.

Engagement: the challenges for projects

Don’t mess with my scope!

Having enough time

Having a framework – who is going to make it happen?

Adapted from Harkins, P. 1999 Powerful Conversations: How high impact leaders communicate. McGraw Hill

The Say Do Matrix

Achieving engagement

It doesn’t happen by itself – you need a structure

Managers facilitate conversations – they don’t have to sell, sell, sell

If you aren’t going to act on feedback, best not to invite it

Co-ordinate centrally, but deliver and act locally

Culture check – but don’t assume that people don’t want to be asked

Some final thoughts….

Be clear about the role of communication – it isn’t a substitute for good governance or line management.

Importantly, communication can’t make sense of something nonsensical.

Sometimes the problem is with the solution being implemented and communicators need to be able to recognise this and push back when the expectation is on them to fix it.

No amount of communication, however creative, can turn a bad solution into a good one.

And Almost Finally…

• People matter – wherever they are located!

• Things don’t always work out as planned but try and keep a smile on your face…..and learn!

• I’ll get the ice-creams

Thank you…any queries or is it lunch?

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @PeopleSIG

Web: http://www.apm.org.uk/group/apm-people-specific-interest-group