The Communication Grid

When delivering your analysis or when acquiring information for your analysis, you will need to assess and identify the different stakeholders and determine their power of influence and level of interest in the project.

You might be asked to deliver a variation of your analysis report to suit the stakeholders’ interest in the project. It can go from an in-depth report for those stakeholders that have a high power of influence and high level of interest, to a high-level report.

Putting the different stakeholders on a matrix will allow you too, to identify the sources of your information, to make sure that all groups are represented and that your data is representative of all stakeholders.

A diagram showing the communication model, whereby messages are passed from receiver to sender and vice versa, in the frame of a context

Figure 1: The comminication model

Effective communication happens when the message you intended to send across was received and understood in the manner you wanted it.

The context in which the message is said is sometimes more important than the message itself. Eg. training in the gym or training in a classroom - the context changes the whole narrative of what will be said.

It is a two-way process.
Communication occurs between or among two or more parties (sender and receiver).
Communication involves the exchange of ideas, feelings, information, thoughts, and knowledge.
Communication involves mutuality of understanding between the sender and receiver.
There are two types of communication i.e., verbal and non-verbal communication.

Barriers to communication

It’s important to be aware of barriers to communication – whether spoken or written, in-person or on the phone or using a collaborative tool like Zoom, Teams or WebEx. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of potential communication barriers to be aware of:

Perception on the part of the receiver.
The environment – noise, fumes, heat, etc.
People’s attitudes and emotional state.
Selective listening (pretending not to have heard).
Time zones and geography (think of an international meeting over Zoom or Teams).
Culture and language (not only where English is not someone’s first language, even between the UK and USA there can be barriers to understanding).
Distractions and other priorities (e.g., the children bursting in when you’ve dialled into a Zoom meeting from your home office).

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Customer Reporting and Project Appraisal