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I think there's a lot of Merit in the saying that project management is 80% communication so in this video I want to talk about how to build a great communication plan [Music] if your project doesn't tell people as much as they want to know if you don't keep communication ahead of events then people will fill the vacuum with rumor when people don't have any real information and they find out what's going on through gossip and rumor then they lose confidence they feel as if nobody's in control because rumor loves exaggeration and gossip creates alarm the information we get from ill informed sources is always more scary than reality in some people's minds change the uncertainty equals conspiracy it seems ironic that it was John F Kennedy who said the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie deliberate contrived and dishonest but the myth sistent swaye Civ unrealistic an important part of your role on a project is to quash the rumors and the way we do this is by communicating and communicating well in fact argument that says you can never communicate enough until that point where people go it's too much need to build effective communication plans the basic form of project communication plan is a table a matrix a set of columns and the easiest tool to use to create your communication plan is either a table in a document or in a spreadsheet in this table each row represents a new line of communication and we use the columns to tell ourselves what we need to know about each communication that we're planning to put out a simple communication plan may only have a few columns with the core information a more thorough robust communication plan may have up to nine or even more columns I'm going to take you through the nine columns I consider most important and to help you remember them to bring them to mind when you're out there doing your job I'm going to give each column a title that begins with T and the first column is t4 theme for each communication think about the theme of that communication what's it about and a second column is T for topic what are you actually going to say you could also think about this as T for tail the tail you're going to tell the story the message itself the next column is T for target who is this message aimed at who needs to receive this message to understand this topic listen to this tale this may be multiple stakeholders or it may be simple communication aimed at one stakeholder in particular the next thing to think about is t4 tall what is the medium you're going to use to communicate this message for each stakeholder and for each message there are going to be some tools some media that will work better than others there may not be a single optimum but think through what's the appropriate medium to use but this stakeholder to receive that message and the next tea is tea for tone are you going to be consultative informative commanding demanding requesting requiring or simply telling a story are you looking to gain information back from your stakeholders you're looking to gather their opinions their ideas their advice or are you looking to tell them something or ask them something or ask them to do something or request them to do something or require them to do something tone of voice is really important and we've all had that experience of sending out a message and getting a reply that was wholly other than what we expected the words were right but the way we express them the tone of voice in our message was wrong if in planning your communication you think about the tone of voice you want then when you've drafted your communication when you prepare it you can review it critically against that required tone of voice and if you've ever sent out an email late at night when you're a bit frustrated and got a horrible reply the next morning you'll know the importance of checking your messages for tone next is timing communications follow a regular cycle like project reports others come at specific times so what is the correct timing if it's a regular communication then what's the frequency it's going to evolve how might that frequency evolve through the life of the project if it's a one-off communication when's the best time to issue it think about the project events think about what the stakeholder is going to be concerned with the ideal time from the point of view of your project may not be ideal from the point of view of a stakeholder if they've got urgent considerations then sending a message at that time may mean it doesn't get properly read may not get read at all and it certainly may not get the consideration that you want for it we all get overloaded at times so think about your stakeholders and their business cycle number seven its t4 test how are you going to test to measure that your communication has been effective and achieved what you want of it this is about how you're going to gather feedback how you're going to assess the feedback and arguably what feedback you want what is a good result tests can be as structured as sending a questionnaire or asking for a reply or they can be as unstructured as a reserving the expression on the face of your stakeholder when you tell them something in person but think about how you're going to be sure that the communication you have sent into the world has had the result that you want and crucially how you're going to spot if it hasn't number eight is the tell of a person who is going to create the message who is responsible for each line of your communication plan and finally at number nine T for tick who is going to be the person who signs off the communication before it goes out now some communications won't need that sign-off the person who you allocated to take responsibility for it can sigh it off and do it themselves but others are going to be crucially important it may be your responsibility as project manager it may be a stream lead it may be a communication manager it may be someone as senior as the client representative or the project sponsor who needs to authorize a communication before he goes out thinking about this is an important part of good project governance so there we have it nine important considerations for any communication and therefore the basis of a robust project communication plan but sometimes you need something more for particular stakeholders you will have identified some stakeholders as absolutely crucial to the success of your project your key stakeholders your apex stakeholders however you want to describe them so you may want to build a specific communications plan for those individual stakeholders so for each stakeholder you will start your communications plan by articulating what you know about that stakeholder crucial information about who they are their roles their responsibilities and perhaps their communication preferences you'll also think about who is best placed to communicate with that stakeholder who already has a relationship with them and how does that relationship work you may also want to think about people who are not well placed communicate that stakeholder next think about what you know about them and in particular what is their stance towards the project are they supportive are they antagonistic are they considering their position and how much power and influence do they have it's likely because they're a key stakeholder that they'll have quite a lot of influence quite a lot of power and what is your strategic stance towards that stakeholder what do you want to achieve with them do you want to achieve support active promotion of your project or do you want to learn from them and get their input to make sure the project works well next think about the key messages you will need to get across to them and perhaps schedule them out over time as you expect the relationship to evolve and the project so progress and think about the communique in media that you'll want to use with that stakeholder although you've already thought about who has the relationships and who doesn't nominate someone to take responsibility as the point person to mark that stakeholder and to stay in contact with them to give that stakeholder a point of contact in the project should they need to and because you're likely to be considering important key stakeholders make sure that person is someone that they will consider suitably important for them to speak to you may want to include a budget for communicating with that stakeholder and then crucially schedule out line by line the communications you expect to make and this part of your stakeholder communication plan will of course evolve with the project you can use the 90s but if you want to keep it simpler what I consider to be the most important information in your line by line breakdown of communications with that stakeholder of a message medium home the timing and the person who is going to pair and initiate that's communication so we've gone through two of a number of communication tools but the two most useful that you must widely use and therefore the two most effective communication tools that you can use on your project if project management truly is 80% communication and I think there's a lot of airiness to suggest that to a first approximation it is then great project communication and a great project communication plan is an essential component of your project management as a result use these two plans in your next project make them part of your toolkit and you'll become a better project manager if you've enjoyed this video please do give it a thumbs up and why not subscribe to our Channel and hit the notification bell so you don't miss any of our future videos and uh look forward to seeing you in the next one