Communicating with Your Project Team

Communicating with your Project Team

When we talk to others it is important that we communicate with them at their level. This means if you are talking to someone who is highly technical, use technical terms. However, if you are talking to someone who is less technical, leave out the technical jargon. Explain things in terms that will make sense to your audience. People are often successful when talking to people with less expertise than themselves by using analogies too explain things. By talking to people and using words they are familiar with, we make them feel more comfortable. When they are more comfortable, they will like you and want to work with you. When you are on a project team, keep in mind, there are usually a variety of people on it and they all come with different backgrounds and have different expertise. Do not assume that everyone knows the acronyms you know. Even if two people who are talking are both IT people, each may be subject matter experts with different expertise. For example, a software engineer and a systems architect may be working on a project together, but each of them may need some explanation. Assume the others are as brilliant as you are, but they don’t know exactly what you know. Always think about the other person and try to make them comfortable. This will you to build strong, lasting relationships and will ultimately, help you to get promoted!