I recently passed the Project Management Institute’s PMP exam. Although I’ve been trying to continually improve my project management knowledge and skills over the years, just preparing for the PMP taught me quite a number of new things and strengthened my knowledge of areas that I am more familiar with. One of these areas is the importance of communication. It is a well known fact that communication is one of the most important skills a project manager should have and apply. But we all know that good communication is important no matter what your job is or who you are. It is the essence of human social behaviour.

With 15 years of PM experience, I always feel that there is room for improvement in myself when it comes to communication. But at the same time I’ve always been amused (and more often frustrated) by project team members’ unwillingness to communicate verbally. Why o why do people hide behind email when picking up a telephone to deal with a matter quickly and effectively would be so much better. And the excuse... but I sent an email... The thing with email is that it has lots of plus points, but it has a time and place. The PMBOK® describes a basic communication model in Chapter 10 which is worth a thorough read. The bottom line is that communication has an information provider and information receiver and both parties have responsibilities. The information provider needs to ensure that her message is received and understood correctly. The information receiver needs to ensure that he understands the message clearly. There are several techniques to apply, but I won’t elaborate here.

Back to my issue on email and people’s unwillingness or shyness to simply use direct, verbal communication when appropriate. Let’s start talking to one another and use email when written communication is called for and time is on your side.