from dollars to sense: a practical guide to communicating...
TRANSCRIPT
© Turner & Townsend plc December 11making the difference
From Dollars to Sense: A Practical Guide to Communicating Project Controls
January 12, 2015
Presenters: Jason Kimbrell and Ana Gayon
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Who we are
■ Jason Kimbrell
■ Ana Gayon
■ Turner and Townsend
■ Estimating
■ Cost control
■ Planning & Scheduling
■ Risk
■ Project Assurance
■ Contract Management
■ Quantity Surveying
© Turner & Townsend plc December 11making the difference
From Dollars to Sense: A Practical Guide to Communicating Project Controls
January 12, 2015
Presenters: Jason Kimbrell and Ana Gayon
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Communication is Important
Project controls is a communications field
Communicate to gather the data to analyze
Communicate to do anything useful with the analysis
Frequently communicating with non-project controls professionals
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Communication is important
Fast paced world—necessity to be brief
Critical to project success– 95% of successful projects attributed good
communication to success (Dyer)
Young professionals should master early
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What is communication? (from PC 101)
An encoder (sender)
A receiver or decoder (listener, a reader)
The sender conveys information to the receiver. The receiver decodes the
message and interprets the sender’s meaning.
Communication is the exchanging of thoughts and information by speech,
writings or behavior (Webster)
All communications contain the following:
.....
.....
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.....
.....
..... .....
Key Component of Communication: Listening
Repeat and summarize
Shown signs of active listening
Be interactive
Be attentive
Two-way street Be open and receptive
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Crafting the Message
Know your Data
Know your Audience
Know your Tools
Know your Style
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Know your Data
Recommended practices
Compare to previous data
Cold Eyes Review
“Big Picture”
Anticipate questions
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Compare With the Previous Month
Refresh memory
Identify potential errors
Identify trends
Highlight areas to review
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Cold Eyes Review
Second opinion
Automated review through sanity check formulas
Involve young professionals
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Big Picture
Details and documentation
Relevance
ImpactWho needs to
know?
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Anticipate Questions
Look for big ticket items
Seek out answers
Compare with project expectations
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Know your Audience
Who will review the data?
What is their personality?
What do they want to see?
Is the data confidential?
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Who will review the data?
■ Project role
■ Relationship to the project
■ Project controls knowledge
■ Personality Type
To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication
with others" –--Tony Robbins
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Personality Types
Figure: Dr. Eileen Russo personality Matrix
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Personality Types
■ Dr. Eileen Russo uses two dimensions of personality: expressiveness and
assertiveness that shows the interaction of these two dimension and four
personality ‘quadrants’ that result:
■ Low Expressiveness + Low Assertiveness = Systematic
■ Low Expressiveness + High Assertiveness = Direct
■ High Expressiveness + High Assertiveness = Spirited
■ High Expressiveness + Low Assertiveness = Considerate
Figure: Dr. Eileen Russo personality Matrix from an article by Mohammad Islam (Linked in)
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What do they want to see?
Fit for purpose detail
Headline size
Expectations
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Confidentiality
Is the audience authorized to see the data being presented?
Is there sensitive material or information on vendors, technology?
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Know your Tools
Formal Report
Face-to-Face
Presentation
Visual Tools
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Tools – Email and Non-Report Written Communication
■ Pro’s
■ Fast and familiar
■ Easily shared
■ Can be documented
■ Can be both formal and informal
■ Con’s
■ Not as formal as a report or
presentation
■ Message easily lost
■ No control over who sees the
data
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Tools – Formal Reports
■ Pro’s
■ Data tends to be final
■ More control over audience
■ Historical archive of project
performance
■ Frequently aimed at high-level
audience
■ Con’s
■ Time consuming
■ Data is usually old
■ Overwhelming amount of
information
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Tools – Face to Face Dialogue
■ Pro’s
■ Immediate
■ Informal
■ Allows for non-verbal
communication
■ Leads to fast action
■ Helps avoid confusion
■ Works well with certain
personality types
■ Con’s
■ Less formal than presentation
■ Can appear “unprepared” or
“under development”
■ “Sky is falling” mentality
■ Not good for large groups
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Tools – Presentation/Meeting
■ Pro’s
■ Always formal
■ Addresses groups
■ Addresses visual and auditory
learning
■ Non-verbal communication
allowed
■ Con’s
■ Meeting fatigue
■ Expensive
■ Should only use meetings for
important communications
■ Difficult to get the right people
at the right time
■ Lack of preparation shows
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■ General Tips for Visual Tools:
■ Give charts and graphs enough room to be legible
■ Graphics tend to be trusted over words
■ Be consistent with colors/symbols
■ Add visuals to clarify
■ Ex. ALT+30 creates ▲ and ALT+31 creates ▼
■ Remember that you are a visual tool
Visual Communication Tools
.....
.....
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Tools – S-Curves
Pro’s
High level view of
performance over time
Con’s
No causation
One subject at a time
.....
.....
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Tools – Staffing Histograms
Pro’s
Relationship between
staff, hours and cost
Answers questions
around “burn rates”
Con’s
Hard to show multiple
baselines
There is no standard FTE
conversion
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Tools – Cost Summary Tables
Con’s
■ No yearly phasing
■ Utility depends upon
definition of buckets
■ Can be overwhelming
mix of information
Pro’s
■ Project status –
inception to date
■ Shows budget changes,
value of work done, and
forecasted EAC
■ High level causation
Cost shown in $ MM USD
Tangy Tangerine Project Cost Summary – July 2016
A B C = A+B D E F G H = F+G
WBS Budget Changes CAB Commitments
Commitments to
Go VOWD ETC EAC
Engineering 100 0 100 50 40 25 65 90 -10 ▼
Tangerines 50 0 50 50 0 50 0 50 0 --
Puppy 120 0 120 10 120 65 65 130 10 ▲
Total 270 0 270 110 160 140 130 270 0 --
I = H-C
Over/Under
Budget
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Tools – Phasing Histograms
Con’s
■ One subject at a time
■ Excel does not allow for
combined stacked and
clustered bar charts
■ No causation
Pro’s
■ Yearly phasing of cost
■ Cash-flow planning
■ Overall impact of
expediting/delaying work
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Tools – Cost Waterfall Charts
Con’s
■ Limited to comparing 2-3
periods of time at most
■ Only heavy-hitters
■ Requires some “curating”
Pro’s
■ Story-telling device
■ Changes between
estimates
■ Answers questions
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Know Your Style
General Tips and Tricks
Presentations
Public Speaking
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Know your style – General Tips
■ Follow the company style guide
■ Use a common language
■ Avoid acronyms, but define them if you must use them
■ Avoid jargon – especially project controls jargon
■ Define key terms
■ Give graphics a title
■ Be open and transparent
■ Tell a story
■ Be consistent
■ Be concise
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Email and Writing Tips
■ Always have a meaningful subject
■ “Cost Report” vs. “May 2015 Owner’s Cost Report”
■ Craft the message so that nothing is ambiguous
■ Watch out for “Reply All”
■ “Hi ____” is an acceptable opening. “Dear” should be reserved for formal
communications.
■ The most important information should be presented first
■ No more than two paragraphs at 3 lines per paragraph
■ Proofread
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Presentation Tips
■ State the objective of the presentation
■ Graphics should enhance a message, not replace it or cover up bad data
■ Use PowerPoint, not hand-outs
■ Be mindful of time
■ Omit needless slides
■ Proofread
For a great resource, refer to “Effective Presentation Skills for Cost Engineers’ by
Dr. Andrew F Griffith, P.E.
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Public Speaking 101
■ Speak loudly, clearly and slowly
■ Dress appropriately
■ Practice, practice, practice
■ Memorize your introduction
■ Mistakes happen
■ Prepare for questions
■ Avoid coffee/caffeine
■ Stand up while speaking
■ Toastmasters is an excellent resource
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Conclusion
Intelligence, knowledge or experience are
important and might get you a job, but
strong communication skills are what will
get you promoted.
---Mireille Guiliano, former spokesperson for Veuve Clicquot
making the difference
Question and Answer