Project management communication: a systems approach

This discussion analyzes and reviews verbal and non-verbal communication issues that have an impact on information resource project managers. The concepts are presented in a familiar information systems model framework showing open and closed-loop systems as well as a communication flow system. It provides theoretical underpinnings for project managers who strive to develop proactive management of the environmental influences surrounding them to shape a communications environment, rather than having to take a reactive stance to the multiple messages and barriers they encounter. Technology alone is insufficient to improve communication. Technology may be utilized to organize data into information, but information becomes communication only as it is interpreted by a person. Information resource project managers, who can expect to spend a large percentage of their time in communication activities, can develop communication skills as they increase their understanding that communication is interactive and manageable.