This document provides best practices for communicating on a complex international project team. It summarizes that the team consists of 28 people from four companies across three continents speaking three languages. It then provides recommendations for: assessing team members' communication preferences; establishing a calendar and weekly calls; creating a team communication charter; providing centralized access to documents; requiring documents be shared 24 hours before meetings; and pursuing one-on-one meetings to understand challenges. The document emphasizes that effective communication requires planning and constant interaction.

1. You’ve just been tasked
to lead a project team made
up of executives, engineers
and operations staff from four
companies based on three
continents.
Now what?

2. Best Practices in Project Communications
Some background . . .
Your German-based equipment company and
its technology partner just won a big order in China.
It requires custom engineering and manufacturing.
To make an on-time delivery you’ll need support
from your US engineering office, your Chinese field service provider
and the customer’s staff.
It’s not that complicated, is it?
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3. Equipment
Supplier
2 executives
3 engineers
2 factory managers
2 software engineers
1 process engineer
1 service engineer
1 account manager
Best Practices in Project Communications
Meet your project team.
Locale
Technology
Provider
1 executive
2 engineers
1 account manager
2 software engineers
1 process engineer
1 process engineer
1 account manager
Service
Provider
1 executive
2 engineers
1 account manager
2 software engineers
1 process engineer
1 service manager
1 service engineer
1 process engineer
Customer
1 executive
2 engineers
1 account manager
2 1 executive
1 engineering
manager
2 executives
2 factory managers
2 process engineers
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4. Equipment
Supplier
2 executives
3 engineers
2 operations mgrs
2 software engs.
1 process engr.
1 field service engr.
1 account mgr.
Best Practices in Project Communications
Here’s a real-world, high profile project team – look familiar?
Technology
Provider
1 executive
2 engineers
1 account mgr.
2
1 process eng.
Service
Provider
1 executives
engineers
1 account mgr.
2
1 service mgr.
1 service eng.
1 process eng.
Customer
1 executives
engineers
1 account mgr.
1 executive
1 eng. mgr
2 executives.
2 operations mgrs.
2 process engs.
In summary, 28 people, consisting of executives,
engineers, sales and manufacturing people from four
companies located on three continents.
They speak three official languages
in their work locales, but there are also team members
from France, the Philippines and Taiwan.
Oh yes, and your boss has agreed that the customer
will be an active participant in all project meetings.
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5. Best Practices in Project Communications
Think a weekly email will keep this team informed and on track?
The executive sponsor
gets 200 emails a day.
The key
software
engineer in the
US hates
meetings.
The factory manager wants
a daily work breakdown.
The customer’s
executive
sponsor never
answers e-mail.
The customer’s factory
team doesn’t speak
German.
The field service
provider won’t staff
the project team for
12 weeks.
The customer’s
factory sponsor
wants to meet
with the project
manager every
month.
The technology provider’s
account manager can’t stop
talking.
The key
process
engineer is
painfully shy.
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6. Best Practices in Project Communications
Differing personal
communications styles.
Differing requirements
for project detail.
Language differences.
Cultural differences.
A recent survey of unsuccessful projects1 cites poor communications
as the primary reason for failure in 30% of cases.
WHY?
Personality differences.
Team communications
overload.
No team
communications plan.
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1 See page 16.

7. Best Practices in Project Communications
Think you’re smart enough to make it up as you go along?
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Or do you want to make 100% certain
that your project doesn’t become a statistic?
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Assess the Audience
Best Practices in Project Communications
Establish a Calendar
Weekly Calls
Team Communication
Charter
Project Document
Access
Project Document
Availability
One‐on‐Face Time
Talk one-on-one with project team contributors, stakeholders and
sponsors about their communications preferences.
(Executive sponsors and stakeholders may have specific
requirements – such as phone calls or review meetings – that fall
outside of normal team communications.)
While everyone’s preferences can’t be completely satisfied, knowing
them can help craft an effective communications effort.
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Assess the Audience
Best Practices in Project Communications
Establish a Calendar
Weekly Calls
Team Communication
Charter
Project Document
Access
Project Document
Availability
One‐on‐Face Time
As part of preliminary project planning, lay out a
comprehensive schedule for meetings, conference calls,
one-on-one phone calls, site visits & weekly progress reports.
Incorporate this into the master project timeline.
While subject to revision, this step embeds the project’s
communication requirements into the teams’ personal schedules.
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10. Best Practices in Project Communications
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Best Practices in Project Communications
Weekly Calls
Team Communication
Charter
Project Document
Access
Project Document
Availability
One‐on‐Face Time
Weekly conference calls with primary contributors maintain
urgency while limiting the need for face-to-face meetings.
Use these calls to resolve items on the issues & change logs,
update progress, and provide input for a weekly report.
Schedule calls at a fixed time. Use video and webex as
needed. If there are overseas team members, rotate the
meeting time to “share the pain” of after-hours calls.
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Assess the Audience
Establish a Calendar

11. Best Practices in Project Communications
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Best Practices in Project Communications
Team Communication
Charter
Project Document
Access
Project Document
Availability
One‐on‐Face Time
Work with the team to establish a Team Communications
Charter. Why? A project team that only communicates
during team meetings and calls is certain to fail..
A communications charter encourages team members to
interact outside of meetings, requires attendance at
scheduled activities, sets a common language, and outlines
how documents should be posted and communicated.
Include measures to assure spoken communications are
accurately translated. Reference the charter if member
communications falter.
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Weekly Calls
Assess the Audience
Establish a Calendar

12. Best Practices in Project Communications
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Best Practices in Project Communications
Project Document
Access
Project Document
Availability
One‐on‐Face Time
Ever been on a team where members can’t seem to keep
track of important documents?
Set up a central file for key project documents that can be
accessed by all team members. Post the project charter,
project plan, product specifications, communications charter,
issue log, change log, progress reports, working papers, etc.
A dedicated, secure Sharepoint Project site is one approach.
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Team Communication
Charter
Weekly Calls
Assess the Audience
Establish a Calendar

13. Best Practices in Project Communications
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Best Practices in Project Communications
Project Document
Availability
One‐on‐Face Time
Here’s another characteristic of ineffective project teams:
Meetings at which the key documents are delivered just
before (or even during!) the meeting.
The result is at best unproductive, and at worse ineffective.
If a document or report needs to be reviewed during a
meeting, require the authors to push it to team members 24
hours in advance via urgent email.
“What do you mean no one’s read the preliminary
specification? I just sent it! Check your in‐boxes!”
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Project Document
Access
Team Communication
Charter
Weekly Calls
Assess the Audience
Establish a Calendar

14. Best Practices in Project Communications
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Best Practices in Project Communications
One‐on‐One Face Time
Pursue unstructured, one-on-one face time with
contributors, stakeholders and sponsors. Ask for their views
about the project plan, progress, and project management.
Time spent with individuals is best way to understand the
challenges facing the project and the path forward.
Overseas meetings cost time and money, but the alternative
is to be in the dark about issues critical to project success.
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Project Document
Availability
Project Document
Access
Team Communication
Charter
Weekly Calls
Assess the Audience
Establish a Calendar

15. Best Practices in Project Communications
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Assess the Audience
Best Practices in Project Communications
Establish a Calendar
Weekly Calls
Team Communication
Charter
Project Document
Access
Project Document
Availability
One‐on‐One Face Time
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Good project communications does not just happen.
It’s the result of planning, discipline,
and above all constant interactions with the
contributors, stakeholders and sponsors that make up
every project team.
The outcomes – effective, productive teams that deliver
on specification, on time, and on budget.

16. Best Practices in Project Communications
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Best Practices in Project Communications
References and Resources
Page 6 of this presentation references statistics on project success and failures from the
Project Management Institutes’ 2015 Pulse of the Profession report:
http://www.pmi.org/~/media/PDF/learning/pulse‐of‐the‐profession‐2015.ashx
For information on how to set up a Sharepoint site
for project management:
http://www.slideshare.net/gzelfond/utilizing‐sharepoint‐for‐project‐management‐20042391
For more information on Alphecca Management resources, go to:
www.aphecca‐management.com
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