Communicating Effectively

Week 3 assignment was to interpret a project team communication delivered by three different modalities and to reflect upon each. The key to successful project management is effective communication- sharing the right message with the right people in a timely manner (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008 p.)

Email

When I read the email, my first thought was that it could be easily misinterpreted by the intended audience (Mark).  Second, I didn’t feel like the message was clear and concise and even lacked the purpose of the email. Emails should be concise, clear and relevant. Following those three guidelines your communications is less likely to waste the time on overly verbose messages, or messages that require additional clarification later (unknown n. d.).  I also noticed the communication did not begin with a purpose.  Stating the purpose of the email is a critical component to effective communication (Stolovitch n. d.).  Written communications should include the following:

• Begin with a clear purpose
• State the situation
• Include possible solutions
• Indicate if sign off  is required
• Specify the form that the response is required to take
• Keep tone business and respectful (Stolovitch n. d.)

There was no detailed information provided about what type of report which could also lead the intended recipient to ask for further clarification instead of just sending over the report to Jane.

Voicemail

While the tone of the voicemail was warm and welcoming it did not provide the detail the recipient needs without further clarification (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008 p. 357).  From the tone in the voicemail it seemed that Jane had a pretty good rapport with Mark and she understood his scheduling constraints as if they were a common occurrence. Even though Jane could miss her deadline, in her message she was not clear on when she needed the report.

Face-to-Face

While the face-to-face communication appears to be the most effective means to communication the project needs of Jane, the message was not different. She was not clear or concise with the report she needed.  I do applaud the effort of not relying on the written communication or voicemail message that could be misinterpreted. She should have wrapped up the face-to-face meeting with confirmation that’ll she would also send an email to document the conversation between the two of them with the specific report needed the time she needed the report so she does not miss her deadline.  I’m not sure the smile at the end of the face-to-face communication was meant as a warm gesture or she was smiling in hopes that Mark would follow through with her request.

 References

Portny, S.E., Mantel, S.J., meredith, J.R. Shafer, S.M., Sutton, M.M., & Kramer, B.E. (2008), Project managment:Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hobken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Stolovitch, H. (n. d.). Project Management and Instrcutional Design. Retrieved June 27,2012. https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1342057_1%26url%3D

Unknown (n. d.). 6 Tips to tame the email monster. Retrieved July 14,2012. http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/08/6-tips-to-tame-the-e-mail-monster/#more-303

Learning from a Project "Post-mortem"

My First Paint Project

herspeak.blogspot.com

It took me forever to decide what project I was going to use for this assignment. I was so excited that there was no work related requirement. Then I sat with a bobble head doll look not knowing what I would actually write about. The sky was the limit and I was in a fog. Suddenly, I thought about paint project for my second bathroom.

Two weeks ago I attempted my first Do-It-Yourself paint project for my second bathroom. I selected the 2nd bath because it’s upstairs and guest do not use. Secondly, I don’t use. So if I botched the paint job, I wouldn’t have to look at it every day until I figured out how to fix it.


The first thing I did was scope my project. Since it was my first time painting I wanted to know how much paint I needed, type of brushes, how time it would take me to complete the painting and where to find paint for the trim. I had an idea of the color of paint and took a swatch of the material I wanted to match down to Lowes. While at Lowes, I took an opportunity to ask the paint expert what I needed for the trim work in the bathroom. Yeah, I know trim is white, but is all white actually white. Hmm….. that was my question. They were kind enough to share that in most sub-divisions the builder of the homes typically has a contract with a company that supplies all the paint for the homes. This brings to mind the stakeholders and identifying them all upfront in a project. I’d just found out that there was a stakeholder in this project I hadn’t know about. I took my three samples from Lowes and painted a small area on the wall and none of the samples where exactly what I was looking for.


In the interim, I continued some research from the builder’s website and located the number for the Builder. I contacted the builder and they shared that Sherwin Williams is the company used for all the paint jobs in my neighborhood. I visited Sherwin Williams to pick up the paint for the trim and voiced my concern about the current paint samples and what color I was actually going for. The assistant at Sherwin Williams asked to give the color match a try. He took the sample from Lowes and took up a few levels. I took it home and added a sample to the wall. It was exactly what I was looking for. I went back and purchased two gallons of the color and I was off to paint my bathroom.


I successfully painted my bathroom with the first coat. I waited a couple of hours and painted the second coat. I definitely under estimated the amount of time it would take to paint the bathroom. I estimated about ½ a day. It was an all day paint project. WOW! It took forever and my back and neck were killing me. This definitely caused a large amount of scope creep, due to my underestimation of time to paint. Rekom, states that scope creep is inevitable, and you must build time and money to deal with it ahead of time (Rekom, V. n. d.). I was really impressed with my work. I allowed the paint to dry overnight. The next afternoon I began adding all the items back to the bathroom I removed. Last, I hung the shower curtain. I was all smiles.


A few days later I noticed the rod wasn’t even. I attempted to adjust the rod on both sides. As I moved the rods, the paint began to chip off. I panicked and stood in amazement. I didn’t know why the paint was chipping off each time I moved the rod. All of a sudden my light bulb came on. Even though I allowed the paint to dry overnight, the paint was dry to touch. I didn’t research how long it would take for the paint (satin-latex) to actually set, referred to as curing time. That prompted me to search the timeframe for paint to actually cure and discovered it can take up to a month to cure hard for latex based paints. YIKES!


Reflecting back on the painting project I felt like I had not really identified all of the stakeholders. Sherwin Williams was that unknown stakeholder that was identified early on in the project. Identifying them early in the project didn’t affect my budget or painting time line. I had already estimated cost for purchasing trim. My project timeline was grossly underestimated. The level of paint detail in the corners, making sure I didn’t have streaks and applying the second coat took two times as long as I had estimated. Finally, the curing process for the paint job was a critical task in the project that I didn’t even know about. I simply thought it took a few hours to dry. This should have been a part of the analysis part of the project and calculated into the timeline. Although every project is different, the activities that make the most sense early on in the project are confirming the needs; drafting objectives identify the audience selecting the strategies (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008)



Overall…. I LOVE my paint job. It was a huge success because I met my goal of painting the bathroom myself and painting it a color I really liked.

Rekom, P.V. (n.d.). Practitioner Voices: Barriers to Project Success. Retrieved July 5, 2012. https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1342057_1%26url%3D

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.