Possible pitfalls

Please join the discussion at LinkedIn!

For newcomers I repeat the purpose of the group: “A network in the field of communication within the international community of collaboration in European R&D projects”.

This is my list of possible issues regarding hurdles, challenges and pitfalls in project communication. The issues will of course vary a lot, depending on your/your company’s position in the project.

• At project start, making participants realize the role of and benefit from communication.
• How the communication Work Package relates to other parts of the project
• Implementing the mindset that communication is a professional field, not only a tool or a question of popularising.
• Leadership & charge: A non-communications person in charge of dissemination.
• Conflict between communication goals and commercial interests/IPR
• Different traditions and cultures among participating countries
• Scientists and engineers’ ideas contra natural laws of communication
• Conflicting interests in participants’ hinterland.
• Convincing the Work Package leaders that communication must be an integrated part of the project.
• Division of work or subcontracting.
• To convince management that your experience and skills are just as heavy as e.g. the engineers, just in a different ballgame.

Rings a bell? Did some of these issues influence your project(s)? Or maybe something completely different?

I am looking forward to a lot of opinions and new issues!

Group address:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2520376&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

Mapping the challenges

I am happy to see all you people in the group, now we are 25!

But why do we want to spend time at SCI-COMM? Exchange of experience and knowledge, of course.  But how?

My idea is to go for a specific milestone: A survey with e.g. 10-15 questions regarding the most common aspects of project communication. The objective is to map challenges and issues, and to point out the crucial, difficult points.

The frame is this:

• Communication with external stakeholders
• Internal communication
• Collaboration within the project

Before I make a questionnaire, I would like to gather some ideas and input from you. So please drop me some lines on which issues you find important or difficult.

My guess – and hope – is that the group will be able to reach 50-70 members before I launch the survey, which will make it possible to gather experience from a broad range of projects/people.

So please spread the word – but only to people, who actually are working in this field. This will support fruitful discussions (and make “gatekeeping” easier for me).

Bye for now, Jesper

LinkedIn on the radar

Today I am promoting the idea of knowledge sharing in different LinkedIn groups related to FP7. It will be interesting to see how many communication professionals show up here. And I hope they realize that in this context the concept of competitors is set on hold…

The company SCICOMM in the US seems to be working for NSA, NASA, Missile Defense Agency and The National Guard –  a completely different ballgame.
So last night I changed our LinkedIn group name, I added a hyphen: SCI-COMM. We do not want to be mixed up with anyone…