Communicating Projects

From Waterfall to Agile

Ann Pilkington

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000456011
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Media & Communications Industry
• Index: Business

The communication of projects to each stakeholder group is essential to their success. This book is an end-to-end guide for project managers and communication teams seeking to communicate effectively with all constituents, both internal and external.

This new edition includes a number of key topical themes that build on the first edition:

• An introduction to project management for those new to the field, including communicating "agile", as many communication practitioners and project managers find themselves having to communicate in an agile environment, which has a language all of its own.
• The important role of social media and enterprise social networks as vital communication channels.
• The principles of change management.
• The role of storytelling and the importance of translating technical terminology and data into stories that clients and the wider stakeholder groups understand.
• Crisis communication – ensuring there is a crisis or emergency communication process in place in case it is ever needed.

This highly practical book is invaluable reading for communication professionals who are increasingly managing the communication elements of projects. It also supports project managers who need to gain a practical understanding of how to design and deliver communication, as well as helping them to procure effective communication support.

1 SETTING OUT

DOI: 10.4324/9781003137962-1

Project communication, where to start? For the project manager, there is no doubt that communication matters, but what does good project communication look like? Where should it sit within the project structure? What type of skills and competencies are needed? How does it differ from other communication disciplines, for example, internal communication and PR?

For the communicator, it can be daunting to arrive at a project at any stage of its lifecycle. There is a requirement to get up to speed quickly with what the project is delivering, and understand the structure, as well as the politics, and often pressure is applied to start delivering communication activity immediately. However, the temptation to jump straight into communicating should be resisted.

The time spent in the early stages of a project agreeing on the role of communication and being clear about both what it is and isn’t there to do is time well spent. The ideal scenario is for the project communicator to be part of the project from the outset, but where this isn’t the case and communication is brought in a little further through the lifecycle, time should still be taken to ensure that there is a common understanding of the role and that it is structured the most appropriate way.

This chapter sets out to help the project manager or the communicator tasked with establishing or reviewing the function.

It is helpful to first discuss what good project communication looks like before moving on to cover:

• Different communication disciplines
• The difference between strategic and technical communication
• How to scope the communication requirement
• The structure of the project communication function
• Communication responsibilities across the project
• Project documentation
• Gaining an understanding of the project
• Key relationships for communicators.

Getting these aspects right will provide the foundations for an effective project communication function.

What does good project communication look like?

To answer this question, it is necessary to first think about how the communication process works. Much organisational communication works on the assumption that it is a linear process, i.e., somebody is told something, they interpret it in the way that was intended by the sender and that is all that is needed. This can lead to an SOS – “send out stuff” – approach to communication. While sometimes there is a need to simply tell people something, if a project wants to engage its stakeholders then there needs to be a recognition that the communication process is a lot richer than that.

The way that someone interprets a message is influenced by many things: culture, the perception of the sender, the way the message is sent, the recipient’s mood on the day or the environment. For example, in the context of a project, stakeholders’ perceptions of the initiative and what it is setting out to achieve as well as what it may mean for stakeholders can influence the way that messages are interpreted. If stakeholders perceive that the impact on them will be negative, communication will be seen through that lens.

Effective communication relies on an understanding of this complexity and on being able to design a communication strategy and tactics that take account of these factors. This is why communication is anything but a soft skill.

Communicators have a range of tools in their tool box, but selecting the right one at the right time is only achieved based on an understanding of the richness and complexity of the communication process. There is more on the richness of communication in the vignette on communication theory.

In order to be effective at a strategic level, project communicators need to have gravitas and confidence in their capabilities. Projects are often led by strong characters – just the trait needed when there is a difficult job to be done – but that doesn’t always bring with it an understanding of communication and it can feel difficult to challenge – especially for the lone practitioner. However, sometimes an effective, well-articulated challenge will be needed in order to get the right outcome for the project.

In the same way that a project manager relies on any specialist for advice (HR, finance, etc.), they need to be able to call on their communication lead to provide strategic counsel. The communication function is there to help ensure that the project hits its milestones and delivers its benefits. It does this by:

• Helping to develop and explain the vision
• Scoping and understanding the communication requirement
• Developing and maintaining a fit for purpose communication strategy and plan
• Supporting business change and benefits realisation activity
• Taking an audience/stakeholder-centred approach
• Coaching and advising projects leaders on personal communication style and messaging
• Providing accurate and timely information to stakeholders
• Producing communication products that are accurate, on-brand and meet a communication need
• Evaluating the effectiveness of communication
• Building relationships with other communicators
• Encouraging and facilitating a listening culture to reach mutual understanding between the project and its stakeholders.

In defining the scope of communication, it is also important to consider what it isn’t there to do. The communication function is not there to:

• Be a substitute for good governance
• Massage the ego of the project manager or sponsors (although a bit of that might be in order from time to time!)
• Absolve line managers of their responsibility to communicate with their teams
• Manage project documentation
• Make a bad decision look like a good one
• Compensate for the lack of a realistic project plan
• Fix things that aren’t communication problems.

In summary, the best project communication draws on the theory of communication, operates at a strategic level, provides advice when needed and never simply “sends out stuff”.

The different communication disciplines

Project communication doesn’t fit neatly into any of the traditional communication disciplines; instead, it draws from all of them and that’s what makes it rewarding, challenging and distinct. However, it can also make project communication hard to define, with this leading to confusion within the project about what it is there to do.

The main communication disciplines are defined in Table 1.1. Understanding the different disciplines is helpful for three main reasons:

• Using the right terminology helps ensure there is a shared understanding of what the communication function is there to do. For example, most people are familiar with the term marketing – although often it is used to mean promotional marketing communication or sales. The danger for the project communicator who is asked to “market” the project is that it has a high association with persuasion, i.e., the “selling” of products, services or ideas. Of course, every project wants people to buy-in to its objectives and be willing to adapt their behaviour (for example, in the workplace by adopting new business processes), but it is simplistic to think that this can be achieved through promotional messaging alone.
• Being clear about the different communication disciplines is helpful in understanding how communication activity is structured in the wider organisation of which the project is a part.
• Depending on the size and objectives of the project, specialist communication activity may need to be commissioned.

  Table 1.1 Communication disciplines defined

  Advertising	Traditionally advertising is paid-for messaging and is one-way, although opportunities presented through social media mean that advertising practitioners are increasingly involved in more innovative ways to reach their audiences.
  Employee engagement	Employee engagement sometimes sits within HR rather than within a communication team. However, good communication is essential to employee engagement. There is still no one agreed definition but, in a study, commissioned by the UK government in 2009 – Engaging for Success—MacLeod and Clarke (2009) concluded that the best way to look at it was 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.
  Internal (employee) communication	Internal communication is the subset of PR that looks after employees. With its roots in industrial journalism, it was traditionally a one-way function concerned only with telling employees things or entertaining them. Increasingly it is concerned with facilitating a dialogue with employees and contributing to employee engagement.
  Marketing	The Chartered Institute of Marketing explains marketing as: ‘the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably’. The term marketing is often used incorrectly to mean sales or promotion of a product. These are different disciplines, but part of the marketing mix.
  Marketing communication	Marketing communication – sometimes referred to as ‘marcomms’ is the discipline associated with the promotion element of the marketing mix also known as the 4Ps: product, price, place, promotion. It’s becoming harder to define as social media blurs the boundaries between the communication disciplines. Practitioners of marketing communication may be involved in advertising including pay-per-click (PPC), branding, media relations, social media campaigns, the production of collateral such as brochures and search engine optimisation work (SEO).
  Media relations	The subset of PR that looks after relationships with the media. In large organisations, there may be a press office function which is largely reactive, handling enquiries from journalists. However, media relations is also proactive with practitioners working to place stories about their organisations in the media and build relationships with journalists, bloggers etc.
  Public relations (PR)	The UK Chartered Institute of Public Relations defines it as: ‘the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics’. PR practice can encompass internal communication, public affairs, financial PR, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and media relations.

Project communication: strategic and technical

The communication practitioner role can be thought about at two levels: strategic and technical. Each is dependent on the other. Good technical communication (e.g., newsletter or video production) is only effective when it is delivering a strategy and a strategy is only effective when it is delivered by well-executed technical communication. No project leader is going to take communication seriously at a strategic level if the team can’t produce an accurate distribution list or a web page without errors. The project needs both skill sets, either in a team or in an individual. Table 1.2 outlines the distinction between the strategic and the technical.

Table 1.2 Communication skills and competencies

Skills and competencies
Communicator as strategic adviser	Communicator as technician
Is comfortable working at a senior level Provides strategic counsel Has well-developed stakeholder management and influencing skills Understands how to use research to inform strategy Draws on theory and latest thinking to inform practice Speaks the language of business Understands project methodology Understands change management methodology	Has good written communication skills Is experienced at managing a range of channels and tactics including social media Produces design, print, video, audio products or manages the production of these Works accurately with attention to detail

Strategic project communication

The project communicator acting at a strategic level:

• Is comfortable working at a senior level: the communication function should ideally be represented at the senior table and be involved in the strategic discussions around the project. It is important to hear first-hand what senior sponsors are thinking and gain an awareness of the politics of the project. Advising the right communication approach is difficult if there isn’t a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Preface
• 1 Setting out
• 2 An introduction to project management for communicators
• 3 Change management
• 4 Who are our stakeholders?
• 5 Developing the strategy
• 6 Channels
• 7 Creating content
• 8 Creating plans
• 9 Research and measurement
• 10 Issues and crisis
• References
• Index