The importance of communication in project management cannot be overstated. It is the cornerstone upon which successful projects are built, and it is up to project managers to ensure everyone is communicating clearly and consistently throughout a project. 

However, clear communication can be a challenge when your project team is distributed. When everyone is working from home, you can no longer pop into other’s offices to clarify inconsistencies or ask questions. Nor can you call team members together for last-minute hands-on meetings to keep everyone on the same page or address unexpected issues. Not being instantly accessible to do any of these enhances the risk of miscommunication.

Avoiding that project pitfall must become a top priority for all team members in a remote team, starting with the project manager. Here are some tips for ensuring miscommunication doesn’t derail your projects when your team is working from home.

Plan Projects With Meticulous Attention to Detail

Having a detailed plan is the best defense against miscommunication issues, especially with a remote team. Because your team is distributed, the plan needs to be extremely specific in defining each person’s role and addressing which tasks need to be completed when, and how they should be done. 

“Detail is a project manager’s greatest weapon against miscommunication,” writes Helen Sabell, CEO and principal at The College For Adult Learning in Australia. The details are more critical for remote teams because when members are in different time zones and out of touch on a daily basis, real-time communication can be difficult, creating cracks in processes and imperfections in solutions when the way forward is unclear. 

An effective project plan must include a clear outline of the processes for every role and deadlines that have been agreed upon in advance of creating the plan, writes David Nevogt, cofounder of time tracking software provider Hubstaff. This helps everyone avoid misunderstandings and leaves little room for error throughout a project.

Encourage Everyone to Keep a Remote “Open Door Policy” 

Accessibility is key to avoiding miscommunication. One of the biggest communication obstacles in remote teams is distance, which creates a lack of access. If team members can’t get in touch with each other or are unsure of when to approach each other, they are more likely to misstep along the way as they make decisions without consulting others. 

Time zones can complicate accessibility, but it is still possible to create an atmosphere that encourages frequent and unrestricted communication. Everyone, especially the project manager, must be willing to be flexible with their time. “It doesn’t work if you’re not willing to take calls at 9:30 p.m. or be on conference calls at 4 a.m. — remote colleagues are,” says David Maxfield, vice president of research at leadership training company VitalSmarts.

A high level of accessibility is also important for getting remote team members comfortable communicating with each other. Distance and an inability to connect with others can make team members timid, which can lead to miscommunication through simple fear of communication. An open door policy helps the team get accustomed to each other.

Create a Sense of Community

A team that feels like a team is less likely to struggle with miscommunication issues. When team members feel a sense of belonging, communication is easier and more comfortable. Creating that team vibe can be difficult when workers are distributed because there are few to no opportunities for them to get to know each other. 

It’s up to project managers to “create a team culture that encourages as much open and informal interaction as possible,” writes Jen McKenzie at project management and collaboration software provider OrangeScrum. Some possible ideas to explore are creating a Facebook group just for your team to share non-work related stuff they can bond over; hosting virtual nights out for the team with games that everyone can play online; and virtual lunches where work talk is off the table. 

It’s not so much what you do, but that you take the time to help your team develop a sense of cohesiveness that will go a long way toward avoiding miscommunication.

Make Time for Face-to-Face Conversations

No matter how much time your team spends in team-building exercises or focusing on clear and consistent communication, nothing beats face-to-face conversations in preventing miscommunication. Written communications, such as emails and texts, which are most commonly used in remote teams, don’t allow for verbal and non-verbal cues to translate in conversations, writes Eileen O’Loughlin, senior project management analyst at Gartner Digital Markets. Tone, inflection, facial expression and body language are all crucial pieces of the conversational puzzle that get lost when people don’t talk face-to-face, she says. This leads to an increase in misunderstandings. 

Project managers can avoid this by scheduling regular video conference calls with individual team members, as well as with the team as a whole. Ideally, these calls happen weekly to keep communication as open as possible, writes Dmitrii Susloparov at The Digital Project Manager. Apart from these scheduled calls, it’s important for all team members to stay flexible and open to hopping on a video conference when the need arises. 

The more time the team puts into learning each other’s conversational styles and verbal and non-verbal cues the less likely you are to deal with miscommunication.

Develop and Follow a Detailed Communications Plan

Every project needs a communications plan. According to Project Management Institute’s Pulse of the Profession Report, poor communication is one of the primary factors in project failure. This risk of failure is enhanced for remote project teams when communication is inherently more difficult due to distance. To best avert this risk, create a detailed communication plan for the project.

Don’t wait until you have something that must be communicated to project stakeholders before you connect. That’s when miscommunication is most likely to happen as you rush to share pertinent information. Having a plan will keep you on track and ensure you are communicating frequently enough with everyone. 

The communication plan needs to take into account team member preferences, how team members will interact and what technology will be used, writes managing director at Skema Projects Evi Prokopi and Penny Pullan, Ph.D., director of Making Projects Work. This facilitates more effective communication between everyone on a team that is working remotely, helping to prevent miscommunication. 

Don’t Forget Your “Other” Stakeholders

Just as important as avoiding miscommunication with your project team is ensuring there is no miscommunication with project stakeholders. As project managers juggle the added responsibilities of managing a remote team, it’s easy to forget other stakeholders who can become “out of sight, out of mind.” 

To avoid that, project managers must make the extra effort to stay connected to all parties, which includes clients, executives and customers. The complication is that they will each have different communication needs. “What works best for us does not necessarily work best for our stakeholders. We all absorb information differently,” writes management consultant Gina Abudi, author of “Implementing Positive Organizational Change.”

To ensure proper communication with each, include them all in your communications plan. Determine how often they want or need to be updated on the project’s progress and set a schedule for communicating. It’s also critical to identify what information they need and the best ways of sharing that information with them.

Most importantly for avoiding miscommunication with them, don’t treat them like an afterthought, writes Grace Windsor at SharePoint project and portfolio management solution provider BrightWork. Be sure to include them in your communications plan from the beginning so you can keep them informed and prevent issues along the way. 

Ensure You Have the Right Tools for Communication

Having the right tools to clearly communicate throughout a project is essential, especially when managing remote teams. Both project management tools and communication tools are needed to ensure consistent and clear communication.

When it comes to managing tasks and processes, using spreadsheets and email won’t be sufficient for preventing miscommunication, writes the team at software and services company Coreworx. Automated workflows and project management software are necessary for giving everyone access to real-time project information so nothing gets missed or misinterpreted when shared.

Also, one or two communication tools won’t be enough to prevent miscommunication on a remote project team, writes Harry Hall, founder of Project Risk Coach. Project managers will need to employ a variety of different tools, including email, video conferences, newsletters and instant messaging. A mix of some or all of these will be necessary to ensure all team members and stakeholder get accurate information in a timely manner. 

Miscommunication can be the downfall of any project. That risk is higher for remote teams that must work across time and distance to share information and collaborate. By planning ahead and making concerted efforts to focus on communication, project managers are better prepared to avoid the pitfall and lead their distributed project teams to successful project deliveries.