What an interesting exercise! I don't think I ever really stopped to consider
how the same message can be received so differently just based on the medium in
which it is delivered. When delivering project
related communication, I have a strong tendency to communicate in e-mail or
other written form. This tendency has a lot to do with the fact that the
written communication serves to document questions, responses, activities, and
decisions. The second most common way
that I communicate project -related information is in meetings. In addition to verbal discussion, written information
is employed to preview key agenda topics, summarize the meeting, and document
outcomes. Again the written word
provides confirmation of decisions made and items discussed.
In the exercise, the exact same message was delivered in
multiple ways. In the e-mail delivery, it was clear that Jane needed a report from
Mark to finish her own work. While she stated that she understood that Mark was
busy, she also made it clear that the information she needed was affecting her
ability to complete her assignment. The
tone was pleasant and the need was clear. Unfortunately, for many busy individuals, it
is easy to ignore an e-mail or to forget their intention to address an
e-mail. Another issue with e-mail is
that you may not know if or when your recipient opened and read the message,
unless your messaging systems provides this capability. Further, with the ever present smart device,
the intended recipient may receive the message during non-working hours, making
it easy to forget to respond to the e-mail the next morning.
The message was then delivered through voicemail. The words were the same and the need was the
same, but the voice conveyed more urgency that I felt was conveyed in the
written message. The tone of the voice and the insistence in that voice made it
harder to ignore the message. To me, it
somehow made the request more important than when the same message was
delivered via e-mail. However there are
also issues with voicemail. Like e-mail,
you don't really know when the recipient actually listens to the voicemail. Like e-mail, mobile devices mean that the
message may be delivered off-hours, in meetings, or at other times when it is
inconvenient to respond. So like e-mail, the individual may forget to respond
to the need.
Finally the message was delivered verbally and face-to-face.
Without doubt, this is the best way to actually achieve the goal, which
is getting the report or the data needed.
Because the request was delivered in person, Mark is more likely to
respond quickly to the request. It is much harder to forget or delay the
delivery of the information that Jane needs. The face-to-face seems to make the
request more personal. In addition to
words, the body language impacts how the request is received. In the video,
Jane clearly indicated that urgency but also recognized that Mark was busy. Her demeanor suggests she hates to ask, but
must do so. Her tone and demeanor
conveyed sympathy and consideration. In my view, the face-to-face delivery of
the message was far more likely to yield the desired results, that being the
report or the data.
This is an important lesson in effective communication. While
e-mail or voicemail may be more convenient and require less personal effort, it
may not result in the most timely response.
Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton and Kramer (2008) speak
to the importance of choosing the appropriate communication for the task. Communication not only includes exchanging
information, but it also influences "one another's attitudes, behaviors,
and understandings" (p. 357). Stolovich
(n.d.) also comments on the importance of face-to-face communication, noting
that as much as 93% of communication has nothing to do with words. Attitude, body language, timing and personality
are major factors in effective
communication. This speaks to the
importance of periodic face-to-face meetings. While technology makes it easier
for people to communicate without being in the same space, it is still
important for relationship building to include face-to-face communication among
project team members and stakeholders. That
face-to-face communication can then be followed up with written confirmation to
document deliverables or actions requested.
References
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
Stolovitch,
H. (n.d.). Project Management and
Instructional Design [video]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6051999&Survey=1&47=5871191&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Hi Janet,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your perspective on the different modalities of the message. It is definitely interesting that we both have read, listened, and viewed the same message but came to different conclusions. I have felt the email seemed highest urgency to get Mark’s work so Janet can finish her part. The voicemail felt it wasn’t in any rush, with her soft tone. When I viewed the video, I couldn’t help to see her eyes look to the side while expressing or urgency even with the finger pointing, I had thought she is thinking, I am tired of waiting on him but I know I need to talk to you in a pleasant tone because we are in the work place. Like you said, maybe Mark didn’t get the emails and now the f2f is the first time he is getting the message, and all of this was a misunderstanding.
I had an incident at work; I was sick all week and had to finish to IEP documents by a certain date, so I went to work to work until I finished the documents. The night before the due date I had worked late to finish, printed out the documents, cleaned up my office and left to go home. The next morning when I woke up I felt worse than before so I called out of work, but had realized that I didn’t take the IEP sheets out of the printer and place it in the directors mailbox, so after calling out sick, I sent an email to my supervisor about some details of the day to tell my assistants and to tell the director in these exact words, “tell Barbara the IEP document is in the printer.” When I came back to work the director asked me to see her in her office, she said, “I’m not mad today but yesterday when I got the email sent to me, it sounded like you were telling what to do, next time reread your email message and be more aware of what your message is saying.
-Neal
Hi Janet,
ReplyDeleteI think you conducted a nice analysis of the slideshow.
I think you could see what Jane was looking for, but I had to weed my way through her writing to get to what she was actually asking for. I think with aural and face-to-face communications, it might be easier to interject addition information, like a sense of urgency that you just don't get through a regular e-mail; however, I think using our knowledge of written communication, and what people respond to, we could add a sense of urgency to our writing i.e. highlighting important sections of the note, eliminating unnecessary words to add clarity, etc.
I think what I have learned through the exercise is not only that different forms of communication might work better to add a sense of urgency to a message, but also that project managers can use their knowledge of communication to help extract the intended meaning much easier.
Cindy