Consider the difference between “Let’s test users” and “Let’s test, users!” Simple words, punctuation, context, and cues can make a world of difference in communication. During a project implementation, communication can mean the difference between the success or failure of new technology. Projects can be thrown off course when a manager sends an email lacking in detail–or a meeting fails to result in critical decision-making. Projects can be completed ahead of schedule when stakeholders are aligned on communication.
In this fourth, and final, article around the psychology behind successful project implementation, we will explore the role of communication, and best practices for communication, during implementation of a new technology solution. We will explore what psychology says about listening, communicating, the different types of communication, and why they’re important. For MPL professionals engaged in new technology project implementation, awareness of these topics can reduce mistakes and misinterpretations, and can significantly enhance the odds of success for your next technology solution implementation for you and your organization.
The ABCs of Communication
Effective communication in new technology project implementations involves the exchange of information and an assurance of mutual understanding, according to the Association for Project Management. Communication can be a surprisingly complex process, involving multiple layers, rules, and components. The discipline of Neuro-Linguistic Programming emphasizes that the effectiveness of communication lies in the meaning that is understood by the recipient of what is said, rather than the meaning intended by the speaker.
Your worldview is shaped through patterns that reflect how you experience life. This experience is not the same for everyone. Though the reasons aren't entirely understood, it's evident that there are three main systems for representing our experiences. While each of us has a preferred or default system, it can be helpful to remember that we often switch between them depending on the situation. These systems are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, as seen in the figure below.
When these systems don’t align, communication breaks down, mistakes are made, deadlines are pushed back, and return on investment for your new technology implementation goes down. Communication is more effective when the sender and receiver use the same primary representational system as outlined in the examples below.
Visual Communicators want to be shown how a specific task is to be completed and are typically more receptive to a visual demonstration. Such a visual demonstration could include a chart or proof of concept showing them what the end result looks like, which can be especially helpful when trying to explain new workflows in a new technology system before it’s completed. To explain a mathematical topic like billing, you could share a spreadsheet with the data or a more simplified representation of the data.
Kinesthetic Communicators need to actively participate in a learning process to gain mastery. If, for example, you notice that someone needs to perform certain actions themselves to fully grasp a concept, consider guiding them through the steps next time you’re helping explain something. For example, if you are introducing a new employee to the bug ticketing system, you could watch their screen and gently guide them through the process.
Auditory Communicators prefer engagement through listening, and speaking can be particularly effective. If you notice that someone tends to understand better when they hear information, explaining concepts out loud and encouraging them to ask questions can expedite their understanding. For example, if an auditory learner needs help with a new technology system, explaining the various steps and concepts of the system while occasionally checking their understanding to elicit questions can be an excellent way to execute the learning process.
Communication Nuances
Research more than half a century old revealed much about how listeners process information:
- 7% of emotional meaning comes from the words spoken
- 38% from how the words are spoken
- 55% from facial expressions
Although these theories are now seen as overly simplistic, a broader interpretation is that consistency across all three aspects—words, tone, and facial expression—is key to conveying the intended message. Practicing a speech in front of a mirror, for example, can help ensure this congruence.
In conversations or discussions, if the emotion in your words doesn't match the emotion conveyed by your tone of voice or facial expression, the listener is likely to trust the tone and facial expressions more than the words themselves. This is especially true with new technology implementations. If you’re in an online meeting, turning on your camera can actually help to convey your message through facial expression, especially when emotions are involved.
However, if you’re the only person with your camera on, the people in the meeting may have a harder time understanding the meaning of what is being said by other meeting attendees since the lack of visual cues removes around 55% of intention conveyance. Practicing empathy or sympathy, asking questions to truly understand intent, and turning on your camera to convey your intent may be useful in these situations. The next time you need to meet online with a vendor or client to discuss finances, performance reviews, celebrate immense successes, or discuss the importance of a newly discovered use case for the new system to handle, your camera may be a useful tool to help convey the proper message.
How to Listen to Others
Many of the techniques mentioned above also rely heavily on listening skills. Without listening, communication becomes a one-sided broadcast. While this may be appropriate in certain situations—such as giving orders or safety-critical instructions—this kind of communication lacks the exchange of a two-way interaction. Active listening is a crucial aspect of effective communication. The goal of good listening is to understand, yet most people tend to listen with the intention of responding rather than truly comprehending.
Research reveals that listening is essential for improving organizational performance and decision-making, identifying five key principles for effective listening. Specifically, when implementing a new technology project, these key principles can be effectively utilized in your organization as follows:
- Maintaining an open mind: Keeping an open mind about changing your workflow, while maintaining the essentials, can lead to significant efficiency gains.
- Engaging in planning across an organization: Listening carefully to the project plan, giving attention to what management has to say, and understanding the requirements can help power the project down a smooth and cohesive path.
- Modeling effective listening at multiple levels in an organization: If you are in a leadership role, distributing leadership tasks by appointing group leaders who can listen to the users of the system may provide you with valuable feedback and increase efficiency.
- Creating impactful and emotive feedback approaches: Approaching a project with empathy may increase intrinsic motivation within the team. If you’re leading the implementation of a new solution, practicing empathy, genuinely listening, and providing emotive feedback doesn’t mean you can’t make decisions that others might disagree with, but when people feel heard—through eye contact, repeating what they say, and showing empathy or sympathy—your decisions can be easier to accept. This can boost morale and encourage new ideas.
- Understanding how people think and feel: Similar to being empathetic and creative, understanding how people feel can make you more approachable. This can provide you with the tools to guide others towards the common goal effectively.
In the context of a new technology project implementation, an area where communication is especially important is translating specific business tasks into the new system. To succeed in this task, you need to consider, for example, how best to understand and articulate a purpose behind each task by asking questions such as:
- What is the ultimate goal?
- Can you achieve it through different methods?
- How can you clearly and engagingly explain this to your team?
Using the five key principles of communication, and understanding how different people process information, your organization might want to devise a plan to achieve a successful implementation through breaking down the implementation into specific tasks for the job functions that need to accomplish them. While creating such a plan might be time consuming, it is likely to cut the overall implementation time frame and reduce team frustrations.
A Final Word
When implementing a new technology solution, communication is a vital tool that is easily overlooked. New technologies possess the potential to increase efficiency and effectiveness within MPL organizations. Don’t overlook the seemingly simple tasks that are required with a new solution. Properly communicating these requirements will reduce wasted time, mistakes, and unaccounted use cases, ultimately resulting in a successful implementation.