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Communication in International Projects

March 17, 2010 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Communications Management, Performance Reporting

Communication in International Projects
By Francis Norman

In every project, on a hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis, you will need to communicate either the project status or the status of your part of the project to your managers or even your managers superiors. At these times, regardless of whether you are in an international project or a small, single location one, it is good to have some understanding of the kind of information, format of that information and level of detail you will need to provide to satisfy their needs.

Regardless of their proximity to you, no two managers expectations will be alike, some will demand fine detail on everything on the project, others will require this level of data for only specific areas such as financial performance, schedule, risk profile etc, while only seeking high level data for the balance, other managers may only require a high level report and expect you to report any issues on an exception basis, so if everything other than one part of the project is on schedule, they will expect you to tell them that and then explain why you believe the problem area is off track and what the plan is to recover.

Where things can start to get complicated with international reporting is in the language of the report, the method of delivery and the size of the audience to whom it will be delivered.

  • Language: Does your project have a common language? and if so, how proficient with that language are you and your manager? If you are presenting your report to a manager with similar language skills to yourself you should be on reasonably firm ground since you will both have a similar level of understanding, however, if your manager has lesser language skills to yours, you need to be careful to structure your message in ways he can understand readily, there is no point in leaving your manager with the impression that you are simply trying to impress or belittle him through your linguistic skills. Likewise, if your language skills are lower than your manager, be careful that you actually understand what you are saying and that your manager gets all of the message he is looking for, in these situations it may help to have a colleague present to act as an interpreter if necessary.

  • Method of delivery: How are you going to present your report? the most common would be either in writing as an email or via a telephone conversation, both methods can be relatively simple to conduct but each comes with its own potential hidden traps. A written report delivered across a distance must be well crafted as it may well be the only regular information the manager receives, it is your opportunity to ensure your manager gets everything he expects, nothing more, nothing less, I would recommend agreeing a template ahead of time and sticking to the template as closely as possible for as long as the template is appropriate for the phase of the project. Telephone discussions have their own series of potential pitfalls, they are often conducted at odd hours of the day and the nature of the telephone is that participants often fail to take the conversation as seriously as a face to face meeting r written report, again, here it is vital to have an agreed agenda and to stick to it.

  • Size of the audience: Size of the audience can have an enormous impact on the way the data is to be delivered, here it is important to understand who is there, where they are in the project organisation chart, their interest and support for the project and their requirements for the data you are delivering, this can be a complex political activity but you need to know if your audience is there to support your project or to attack you or your project, either to make their own project seem better or simply to score points. You also need to work out who needs the information and who is just along for the ride. Once you know who you are really talking to, focus your message to suit the needs of the people who need the information. Again, the issues of language and method of delivery influence the message and it is important to tailor your message to the language skills of those present, and possibly even meet separately with some members who need specific points explaining one on one.

If you have to travel to attend the meeting, try where possible to arrive a day or two before the meeting so that you are fresh and relaxed before the meeting takes place, there are few things more likely to undermine management confidence in a project manager than having him seem tired and unconcerned during a meeting, which can be the perceived result of jet lag and travel fatigue. Arriving early can also give you an opportunity to network with colleagues and other project personnel in your managers location, this networking can reap enormous benefits in the long term.

Francis Norman is currently a Regional Operations Manager in Perth, Australia. Francis maintains a professional blog, International Project Management Communications.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 and is filed under Communications Management, Performance Reporting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 people have left comments

Francis, your comments on the audience were excellent. It wasn’t what I expected but good advice. I would just add that if you feel the need to communicate in some way more often than expected - if you feel that the boss really needs more information more often - make sure it’s quick, concise and proactive.

Laura Bamberg wrote on March 17, 2010 - 10:31 am | Visit Link

Hi Laura,
thanks for the comment, good point and I most certainly agree, brief and focused is always best in these situations, your manager will usually be too busy for long rambling sessions and if they have needs for more detail, that can be a followup. Francis

Francis norman wrote on March 17, 2010 - 5:51 pm | Visit Link

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