Project management is the execution of a thorough project plan, that typically involves the supervision of funds, time and resources—in a nutshell. In the context of a creative project, this includes finding the right suppliers or building a team with the appropriate skillset.
Art has always been a way for artists to communicate and express their inner thoughts to the world. But communication is different in contexts outside of visual art. When they need to put themselves out there, especially in a working environment, approaches would differ. But let's circle back to how communication is a skill can benefit artists in the long run, in the setting of project management.
Various factors and essential skills contribute to what makes project management effective, but today, we’ll be covering one important topic: Communication. This is the third installation of our mini-series—for the skills of Time Management and Planning, refer to previous parts!
Why is Communication Important for Projects?
Communication in project management refers to the sharing of ideas, opinions, progress updates and feedback between members of a team. When members of your team are kept on the same page, it ensures that individuals working on the project are aware of expectations—and it prevents mistakes from snowballing into something bigger.
Top 3 Factors Needed for Communication
Skill #1: Collaborative Communication
Collaborative communication refers to the seamless exchange of information as a team to achieve a common goal. It’s important to communicate—but how you do it is just as crucial.
This can be especially important to artists. Create an environment that promotes collaborative communication, to learn from one another. Putting multiple heads together allows for art to be enriched with multiple perspectives, styles and culture. Your creative projects can only benefit from this!
How we can practice collaborative communication:
Centralise information and communication: Leverage the advancement of technology, and choose an application/platform that can help you and your team create an all-in-one collaborative space. This will support the retrieval of related information, documents and discussions that might have been overlooked or missed. Together, your team can address any issues—promoting transparency. For example, with TESSR, you can leave your episodes, scenes, renditions and feedback on the Project Directory.
Engage in tasks concurrently: Work collaboratively by tending to tasks, documents or files at the same time. This boosts transparency—cultivating trust and clear communication, essential to cohesive teamwork. If you create an environment that encourages a culture of projecting positivity in teamwork through freely exchanging ideas and opinions, bonds and team harmony will strengthen.
Skill #2: Candid Feedback
Feedback is crucial to projects, especially within a team setting. It improves that quality of your art, while strengthening teamwork and communication. Giving and receiving feedback is a form of acknowledgement. It shows that you are paying attention, and gives parties the opportunity to alleviate misunderstandings—crucial to effective communication.
This form of two-way communication doesn’t just help with your project management needs but can also promote creative growth. Learning is large part of art, and this process could be aided when you’re in an environment that appreciates and understands good feedback. Having external criticism allows for a fresh pair of eyes to view your work from perspectives other than your own.
How to give feedback effectively:
Understand your environmental influences: Online communication is often limiting; the lack of tone and expression might lead to misunderstanding and miscommunication. As artists who express our thoughts through art, take advantage of tools provided by applications to deliver your feedback with more than just with words. For instance, with TESSR Review, you can leave feedback through comments, voice messages and annotations. Handwriting your comments, adding uplifting emojis or recording your appreciations are all covered!
Be sure to give constructive criticism: For feedback to be absorbed, the recipient should be informed of: what the error is, why it should have been done differently, what are the solutions and suggestions, and how much room for improvement there is moving forwards. Besides that, try to stay positive during the feedback process. Being overly negative while giving vague criticism tends to confuse and demotivate your teammates. So, avoid this to establish reliability and prevent wasted time.
Skill #3: Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) refers to the capability to understand emotions of your own and others, and how you manage it—but to be more specific, there are five main components of high emotional intelligence:
Self-management
Self-awareness
Empathy
Self-motivation
Social skills
But how are these relevant to effective communication within project management? Your emotions can fuel the way you respond and react to things—people with high EQ may avoid team conflict, deescalate conflict and relay feedback without offending. It’s hard to keep emotion out of work, and if mismanaged, they can pose as a setback to you and your team.
EQ can also positively impact your art. The better you understand your own feelings and those around you, the more sources you have to pull inspiration from. Emotions are centric to art, after all. Taking human experiences and translating it onto a canvas, digital or not, gives you the opportunity to further connections with your audience.
How to improve emotional intelligence:
Ask yourself more questions: Examine why you or someone else feels a certain way towards something. Consider how someone may react to one thing, and how someone else could respond to that same thing. To put it simply, put conscious practise into empathy, and it may become second nature to you soon enough.
Active listening: Observe and pay attention to verbal and non-verbal cues, while showing the other party that you’re listening. When you put in a conscious effort into being active within a conversation, you’re practising your social skills—a key factor of emotional intelligence.
Conclusion
Communication can make or break your creative projects—but if you consciously involve the aforementioned factors into your team interactions, effective communication becomes a habit. Much like many other things, you will bear the fruit of your results with time and effort. And, if any of our pointers have helped you, even in the slightest, we’ll consider it as a win.
Author Bio
From Malaysia, Leia Emeera is a writer at TESSR, and a published author. She has been putting pen to paper ever since she learned how to, and has an anthology to her name, titled 'Ten'. Leia loves music, games and her beloved labrador retriever, George. She aims to further her studies in English Literature and Creative Writing the moment her gap year ends. 'Till then, you will find her sitting behind a desk, writing with TESSR.
Connect with her on LinkedIn: Leia Emeera
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