Communicating Effectively

This week, we are asked to review the following communication in three modalities, email, voicemail, and face-to-face:

“Hi Mark, I know you have been busy and possibly in that all day meeting today, but I really need an ETA on the missing report. Because your report contains data I need to finish my report, I might miss my own deadline if I don’t get your report soon. Please let me know you think you can get your report sent over to me, or even if you can send the data I need in a separate email. I really appreciate your help. Jane.”

I began by reviewing the email message. My thoughts were that Jane recognizes the fact that Mark is busy. She needs his report to finish her report so she is relying on him. If he does not have time to send the full report, just the data will do. The message conveys urgency but is very cordial as she says “please” and that she appreciates his help.

The voicemail message was also cordial, but the tone of voice indicates increased urgency. Jane is saying please and that she appreciates his help, but based on her tone, she sounds a little annoyed. The voicemail did not “sound” as friendly as the email.

The face-to-face communication was awkward. Although Jane is explaining the urgency, she is speaking very calmly and slow, so it does not seem as urgent. Also, her saying “please” and that she appreciates his help do not seem as genuine as in the email or even the voicemail message.

In Communicating with Project Stakeholders (Laureate Education Inc., 2010), Dr. Stolovitch tells us that important information should be communicated face-to-face. I generally agree, but in this case, I think email was a perfectly appropriate way to communicate this message. Email does not allow for tone or body language; the words must be taken at face value. As long as some basic “netiquette” is employed as is the case here, email can get the point across very well. Additionally, email has the benefit of being date and time stamped and can easily be accessed later for review. Voicemail is also date and time stamped, although may not be as easy to retrieve because people often delete voicemails as soon as they listen to them. The voicemail in this case did have the benefit of relaying an increased sense of urgency, but sent a bit of a mixed message in that Jane sounded a bit annoyed at Marc even while acknowledging that he was very busy. The face-to-face communication here was very mixed as Jane was telling Marc that she needed the report soon, but her tone indicated that it was no big deal. Furthermore, the face-to-face communication in this context cannot be tracked; it can easily be misinterpreted or forgotten. This is one reason why it is so important during project team meetings to keep written minutes of what was discussed (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton & Kramer, 2008).

Thanks,

Brandey

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Communicating with Stakeholders[Video webcast]. Retrieved March 12, 2012 from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6493367&Survey=1&47=7098459&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

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.