Learning #5: The importance of continuous communication and nurtured relationships

Far too many projects fail to deliver on their outcomes but effective practices can improve the chance of success.

?

In our ‘Balancing the Art and the Science of Project Management’ blog series CES Director of Change and Improvement Ken Stanley will share CES’ insights into 5 key learnings based on our experience which, if adopted, would help any project improve the likelihood of success.

Projects are delivered by people and very often these are people who have never worked together previously. Yet, we expect that by simply putting these people together and calling them a team that, as if by magic, all will work cohesively and collectively and the project is a sure-fire success! Unfortunately, magic is not viable option, so this cannot be left to chance!

A committed and cohesive team who know and understand what is going on and the role they each play, have each other’s back and support each other to deliver

Steps to help this happen:

• Make sure that team members are involved in early discussions and feel involved in defining project plans. This helps to get their buy-in and builds a sense of ownership from the outset.
• Project Leads should take time to get to know their team members and understand their ways of working. Opportunities for team members to do this with each other should be exploited and a virtue made of effective collaboration.
• Project Leads need to provide ongoing proactive and consistent support to individual team members where time is taken to actively listen to feedback, address queries, troubleshoot emerging issues and support identification of solutions. This fosters commitment, builds trust and assures that team members feel supported.
• Structured communication forums where information is shared openly and transparently facilitates open communication and timely sharing of important information. Soliciting feedback and actively taking it on board as part of these communication processes, ensures openness, builds trust and further enhances the sense of teamwork.
• Articulating the progress achieved and publicly acknowledging the impact of those involved promotes engagement.
• Team members should be encouraged to share improvements and ideas for ways of working. Seeing improvements quickly realised supports creativity while sharing of experiences drives accountability and helping people feel valued, appreciated and part of a single wider team.

Thank you for taking time to read our blog series. If you would like to learn more about what we do or how we can help you, please do not hesitate to contact us at www.effectiveservices.org/contact