Some Additional Remarks Concerning the Subject Communications Management

The Communication Knowledge includes different aspects:

  • Sender-receiver models including feedback loops and barriers to communicate
  • Choice of media: when one has to write or speak formally or informally
  • Writing style
  • Presentation techniques including body language and visual aids
  • Meeting management techniques including the sense of agendas and conflict management

The sender-receiver model says, that the sender has to translate an idea into a language which can be understood by others (the act of encoding). The result is the message  which is conveyed by a medium - partially disturbed by noise - and which is finally decoded by the receiver (comp. PMBOK3, p. 224). Inbetween this model on can identify some other aspects:

  • Active Listening is the active verification of the receiver whether he has understood correctly by asking
  • Effective Listening imeans hearing supported by observing the sender and his "visial and vocal clues"
  • Feedback is the method to mirror the received message to the sender for getting an approvement
  • Nonverbal exchange of information "[...] can be up to 55% of a communication"
  • Para lingual are submessages generated by the voice and the articulation

(comp. CROSSWIND7, p. 394)

And the following Communication Types have to be distinguished:

  • formal written "[...] should be used for legal communication and project documents [...] or when distance or extreme complexiziy are involved"
  • formal verbal "[...] should be used in official situations, presentation, and other primarily one-directional communication"
  • informal verbal normally is used in "bi-directional communication" like meetings and talkings
  • informal written "[...] should be used for nonlegal documents, documentations and notes, which are not used in formal context"

(comp. CROSSWIND7, p. 390)