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Subject:Project Communications From:David Harrison <david-x -dot- harrison -at- BAE -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Wed, 25 Nov 1998 14:54:23 +0000
Hi Guys
I've just been asked to accept a new task and I'd really like a bit of knowledge form the group or just an opinion or two.
Our company is midway through a major project and they feel that their internal communications isn't working as well as it should and so they want someone (me!) to address the situation. (heard it before huh?) They have an internal communication strategy document which lists roughly who should inform who about what and when/how often. But like so many other company policy documents, its stays on a shelf gathering dust and people moan about not knowing what is going one.
Here are the main problems that I can see:
1) Any company policy document that exists only in paper form will end up on a shelf and die - how do you keep it forefront in people's minds? Does anyone have experience of a time manager/scheduler which has been used to prompt people to issues regular communications? Is this really a matter of mentality and interfacing? Or do we need third party to act as memory jogger, nosey parker, aide memoire etc.
2) Too many communication strategy items just read "communicate matters of importance". People don't seem to be able to decide what's important and it ends up as all (information overload) or nothing (mushroom theory). Has anyone had success appointing Information Managers who attend the majority of meetings with the sole purpose of weeding out relative information and ensuring that it gets disseminated to and through the proper channels?
3) People who should be receiving information, complain about too much/little. Is it best policy to proactively tell them everything (this could be regular presentations which allow question answer sessions) or passively make it available through intranet, noticeboards and newsletters for users to find? Has anyone one found another medium which falls successfully between the two?
4) Does anyone (preferably this side of the Atlantic as budget is finite) consider that they have a really good methodology that they would like to share, sell, provide some consultancy or show a visiting team?
5) Can anyone recommend any good reading or source material on the topic
6) And for anyone who's been there before - do you think that this is a genuine opportunity or am I being set up as a scapegoat who will carry the can in months to come?
There's probably a few more things that I ought to be asking but that'll kick the game off.
Cheers guys and TIA for any advice you might have.
Dave Harrison
(david-x -dot- harrison -at- bae -dot- co -dot- uk)
