Managing communication through Network mapping

Communication and networks are two essential parts of projects that often can be neglected for project planning and project managing. Managing people issues in projects using Network Diagram is a good way of keeping track of whom are the right people to manage in a project. Since a project always concerns different stakeholders and different people who needs to interact with each other it is always important to keep track of whom are linked to whom. This can be done by using a Network Diagram indicating whom are connected to whom and what power does that relationship indicate as well as what power does the individual hold towards the project. And when combining that with the use of the right way of communicating as well as the right communication strategy the likelihood of a successful implementation of a project is way higher than if the communication and the network is not at part of the project plan.

Introduction to Network mapping

The network diagram is a way of indicating the connection between people, organizations or other groups or things that might be indicated in a network. The network contains in the basic of nodes and edges. Nodes representing the people, organizations or groups. Edges is then indicating the connection between the people, organizations or groups.

What can then be added as indicators is the size of the node, showing what ever attributes connected to the node. Examples could be turnover of a company, number of employees in a company or age of a person. Then the size of the edge between two nodes can be used to indicate the connection between the two. Examples of that could be the emails between the two, the deals between to companies or the amount of projects they have worked together.

When the network is then drafted there are different roles that can be found in network each of them having a special indication of the importance and abilities of that node.

Central connector

The central connector is the type that everyone is talking to, the person or organization that communicates with the most of the others within the project. It would often be the project leader but often it is not the case as recognized by Rob Cross and Laurence Prusak "In most cases, the central connectors are not the formally designated go-to people in the unit."

Since the central connector is not always the formally go-to person it can be seen as the person most people talk to in the project might not be the project manager at all.

Boundary spanner

Boundary spanner is a person whom are connecting two different groups these groups can be direct departments within a company or the crane operators on a building site. The person or organization having such contact and being the only one with that direct contact is of vital importance for the project because without that person there is no direct contact and therefore often no trust bounds between the project and the individual group, department or company.

Information broker

The information broker is the one who connects a large number of individuals or organizations and often between the main group and sub groups. The difference from the central connector is that the information broker is not only defined by the number of contacts but also the importance of the contacts.

Peripheral specialist

Peripheral specialist is the outsider. The person or company that do not have as many contacts as everyone else but whom are often a specialist and is therefore important because of the know-how. The link between that organization or person and the main group is very important because without that the organization or group might not have access to the know-how provided by the peripheral specialist.

Communication

The way of communicating is an important aspect of how the project will be conceived by the once whom are supposed to listen. It is not regardless how the project manager communicates to up to the clients who set the assignment, out to the other internal or external stakeholders or down to the project group all of them various stakeholders. The classification of stakeholders and more on stakeholder management can be found on the Wiki page Stakeholder Management The importance of communication is also reinforced in the book Power i projekter & portefølje p. 269 where it is stated that when asked what the management could do better in change projects the main improvements should be better communication as answered by 67% of the group asked . It is first very important to consider the channel that is chosen for the communication.

The channel of communication

The media could be as examples email, sms, face to face or other ways of getting the the message across. By using email it might seem very efficient but it will often get to the point where nobody is really taken notice to what is really said in the mail. The more effective way is face to face but that can be very time consuming and therefore it is not relevant to do it in order to deliver every message. The trade off by the two means of communicating is further discussed by Hayes

Communication strategies

In order to get the right message across it is important to use the right communication strategy and each strategy have its own benefits and disadvantages.

Spray and pray

The strategy involves letting as much information out as possible to as many people as possible trusting that they might be able to sort through what is relevant and what is not. It gives the receiver the impression of being well informed but they might drown in information and not be able to get the important information out. The strategy is partially criticized inPower i projekter & portefølje p. 275 . Because of as it is pointed out There is a high risk that communication to everyone do not hits anyone

Tell and sell

This strategy involves being prepared at selling the argument, the problem is though that there is a need for a lot of time to prepare the argument and "wrap it up nicely".

Underscore and explore

Underscore and explore attempts to make interesting and make the receiver come to the project manager for more information getting them hook by interest. On the other hand it can be time consuming and the receiver in not interested at all it is a waste.

Identify and reply

Identify and reply tries identify what issues the receiver might have with the project and then getting them to understand the necessity or the need. It will often demand some information about what the receiver dislikes and likes about the project and that might be hard to get.

Withhold and uphold

Simply keeping the information until absolutely necessary before telling. It can be difficult to keep the information for that long and it is rarely appreciated by the receiver.