Getting the word out to your teams

Communication I find is the key to change management, project management, team management, and operational management.  The cliché of ‘ignorance is bliss’ doesn’t apply in the real world of day to day business if you want to have reliable forecasting, happy customers, motivated employees, and profitable project engagements.   So how do you pass along information and keep everyone informed?

I recently attended IMC’s Confab conference and asked this very question in the context of change management.  The response I got was a bit surprising – most of the audience members in the discussion noted that a team or project website with posted status and project related materials was the most effective.  Why was I surprised?  Because I find that self-serve information hunting is only really effective when related to items that impact people on a personal level – benefits, vacations, company organization changes, etc.  For day to day updates on projects in which they are involved or need to be aware of, I find more proactive information being pushed out is more effective.  And I have to admit I still use the old email method as a way to handle this.   Distribution lists are very helpful, especially if they can be ‘subscribed to’ by teammates.   Someone did point out, which I agree with, that proactive communication is only as effective as your email etiquette however.  Subject line must be to the point regarding any action or due dates for the reader and don’t inundate your team with multiple emails when a few succinct summaries will do.

Website posting and email distribution are more static communication and not collaborative though.  With more and more companies promoting telecommuting or are structured as a virtual companies or have multiple offices, the need for collaboration is very important.  Lots of blogs and articles out on the web about collaboration tools – we’ll dive into that another day!  Whether collaboration is a need in your organization, communication is certainly necessary and I often wonder how people ‘plan out’ their communication methods?

Let’s take an example:  I have a virtual team and we keep in contact on a number of levels based on timing criticality of information and openness of dialog

1)     Weekly team meetings – keeps everyone informed of the company health, highlights points of interest from various engagements as a knowledge sharing platform, and promotes team interaction and support of each other.

2)     One on One meetings – allows my employees to have personal conversations about items such as payroll, work/life balance, concerns, and any other topics.  When you are in a virtual company, this is as close to an ‘open door’ policy as I think I could come.

3)     Email – of course, the great equalizer to communication internally with the team and externally to customer.  Forwarding FYIs are helpful to keep everyone in the loop as email conversations evolve.

4)     Skype – this is our Instant Messaging platform and most helpful when we are onsite, on a phone call, or in some other situation where information is needed right away.  We use the ‘do not disturb’ when we aren’t available to get to messages but it has served as a great connector technology for our team.

5)     Intranet & wikis – we share reference information via an intranet. Usually the information has verbally been highlighted in meetings or sent around via email first before it’s posted.  Wikis are our way to build out a knowledge center.

Of course the other items involve text messaging via phone, direct phone calls, etc. but the ones listed above are our main ways of staying in touch and keeping everyone aware of information.

So back to my question, how do people plan out their communication methods?  I have to admit within our company I sort of evolved our internal communication plan based on the need for information exchange and suggestions from colleagues.  I don’t take this approach with customer engagements, however.  Customer engagements are time sensitive, meaning they have a starting point and an ending point, and need to have a clear roadmap to run smoothly.  I prefer to setup a communication plan with my customers for engagements that involve multiple parties, complex milestones and project activities, and end-user training activities.  This way it is clear to everyone involved how information will be disseminated or posted.

Most of my team have been with me quite a while now so would it still be worthwhile to put together a company communication plan?  You betcha!  How else can I position growth if I don’t plan to hire new resources – and they’ll benefit from knowing where they can get their information from us TOP Step veterans.   “It’s never too late to plan out how to communicate!”…I’m just sayin’.
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