Emails may be a routine part of the modern working day, but care should be taken to ensure that the messages they contain are conveyed clearly. This article looks at how a project was knocked off course by a single ill thought out email.
While I was jotting down some ideas for this article, a curious thought occurred to me: when I was young, just about the only people whose occupations familiarised them with the QWERTY keyboard were typists, secretaries and journalists. These days, children are introduced to the keyboard at an early age and everyone has a typing speed.
Good communication skills are very much sought after in a workplace that is awash with technology specifically designed for getting your message across. And nowhere is this more relevant than in project management.
Fluid communications are the life blood of a project. The circulation of relevant information is what keeps the many different parts of a project functioning correctly. Bad communications can bring a project to a standstill.
But what exactly are bad communications? Surely it doesn't matter if a message is sent via email, text message or the pony express, as long as the information is conveyed to the relevant party.
This is true, but it is not the means of communication, rather the content that can cause problems.
One example of poor communication within a project is to send several messages in the same email, where an urgent message can be lost among less important ones. Sending multiple messages in a single email can also lead to ambiguity in the subject line. Here is an example of an email that is asking for trouble. It was sent to the project manager with 'For your attention' in the subject line.
Hi Pete
Just a quick mail to let you know that Sharon rang to confirm that she has now fully recovered from the flu. She will be back at work tomorrow, so you can ring the agency to cancel her cover.
Did you see the Spurs game last night? We were terrible.
Oh, and Connolly's rang to say that they will not be able to deliver on Thursday, but they should manage Friday.
Tom
It could be that Pete immediately acts on the first part of the email and rings the agency to cancel Sharon's cover before he has read the rest of the content. While he is on the phone, another urgent matter comes along to sidetrack him and the email is forgotten. He never gets to learn of the cancelled delivery.
On Thursday he is on the phone to Connolly's asking where their scheduled delivery is, only to be told that they had informed his colleague that there would be a delay. Apart from wasting time having his staff hanging around waiting for a delivery that was never going to arrive, Pete was made to look like he was out of touch with the everyday running of a project he was supposed to be managing.
This incident knocks the entire project off course and Pete immediately summons Tom for an explanation. Tom states that he did inform Pete of the delay in an email, and this is confirmed, but Pete is far from happy.
What Tom should have done is send two separate emails, each with a clear indication of their content in the subject box, such as, Sharon returning to work and Connolly's: delivery delayed. The latter mail should also have been flagged as urgent. This would have removed any risk of Pete becoming distracted and missing a portion of the email. Tom should also have omitted chit-chat from a work-related email.
As project manager, the entire running of the project is Pete's responsibility. There will always be delays caused by unforeseen events, but those hold-ups caused by a lack of clear communication can be prevented. By applying a little care and installing some basic guidelines regarding email content, subject line and status, Pete should ensure that scenarios like that above will never arise. In short, think CON:
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