Vija Desai of Desai Management Consulting served as adviser to this month’s Common Good VT Project Management Peer Support Call and offered these tips for improved communications across units, organizations and cultures. The next call is slated for late March.  You can reach him directly at vdesai@pmforstrategy.com

Pure Water for the World, based in Rutland, posed a series of questions about how to motivate and manage a far flung staff in difference parts of the world. Vijay Desai shared his experience:

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE: Changing organization is tough, situational subject. We need to understand the people and situation and focus on the benefit for all parties involved when starting projects and motivating people.Understand what motivates the people you are working with. What is their temperament and communications style? Listen well and work closely with your people.

GET THEM ON THE GROUND FLOOR: Be sure to engage people when you are making the plan – scope, schedule and targets – so they feel part of the process and are more inclined to participate.

VALIDATE YOUR COMMUNICATIONS: When you communicate on a regular basis, be sure to validate what you have said. You can determine if there is a disconnect and won’t continue to pile on misunderstandings.

Here are the 6 vital steps to Send > Receive information and get work done. If you miss any step then your chances of miscommunication are high. This is vital for successful project management:

•  Sender will form a message in the mind
• Decide on best communication mode? phone, email, skype, face to face
• Send the message with chosen mode.
• Sender Validate – Did Receiver get it or not?
• Receiver will  Record/ Interpret Message/ Confirm that they got it and will act on.
• Senders have to understand culture, the work to be done so that the receiver can comprehend completely.

Resource:  Heath Brothers, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard – http://www.heathbrothers.com/switch/