This blog relates to a message rendered in three different modes; first, as a text sent via email, second, as a voice message (voicemail), and third, as a video featuring the speaker.

The tonality of the message varied across different modalities. First, in the case of the message rendered as text, it carried some level of seriousness and the same goes for when the message was rendered in the voicemail. However, the message was a bit toned down when rendered in video mode. It was as though the message carried less seriousness and the sense of urgency was not as visible in the video mode as it was in the text and the voicemail.

This scenario corroborates what was said in the week’s Learning Resources in which case Dr Stolovitch indicated that what is being communicated is as important as how it is being communicated. He further emphasised the fact that communication is only 10% verbal. Meaning is read more to what is not said than what is said. That, to me, is like indicating that silence has a voice (i.e. silence also speaks). How a message is presented will definitely affect the meaning read to the message. 

The implication of this activity for communicating as members of a project team is that it is important to be able to use the right mode of communication to drive home the point one is trying to make or to pass across the information one is trying to pass across. Personally, I have learned that the mode of communication is as important as what is being communicated.

National Intellectual Development Project Post Mortem Background

Background
The National Intellectual Development Project (NIDP) is to be an annual event organized by the institution where I work as part of its community social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. The project brings high school students together for career talks and inter-school debate competitions. In the maiden edition that took place this year 2022, a hundred secondary schools were invited for the event featuring a target population of about 2,000 Students. The entire project was organized in conjunction with some organizations including financial institutions and food and drink producing companies.

Analysis
The project was planned and executed within the space of 10 weeks.
The quality of the project team was mainly contributory to the success of the project. However, we could have recorded a greater success if we had more time to plan effectively.

Generally, the entire project team was proud of the project outcome in that our desired goal to enlist sponsors for the project was achieved. Not only was the project consummated at no cost to the institution, a surplus was also declared. Perhaps the most gratifying part of the project was the fact that for once, we could organize an event without recourse to the institution’s Bursary department for any financial aid whatsoever. In addition, another success deliverable was the attraction of many students who participated in the event.
Nevertheless, it was most frustrating that we did not get the required number of students to attend the event due to the shortness of planning time. But we caused that by that tardiness of our process. To avoid a recurrence of this scenario we definitely would have to start the planning process early next time.

The planning meetings worked particularly well helping us to set the scope of the project. The fact that we needed to wait for top management approval before making progressive decisions at the initial stage of the project was a bit interest-effacing. If I were to possess a magic wand, I would increase the project planning time, increase the budgetary allocation for the project, increase the number of schools that would feature in the event, and also increase the prize to be awarded to the winner of the inter-school debate competition so that more schools can be attracted.

Thank you.

Bibliography
Greer, M. (n.d.). The Project Management Minimalist: Just Enough PM to Rock Your Projects! Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://content.waldenu.edu/content/dam/laureate/laureate-academics/wal/ms-indt/educ-6145/artifacts/pm-minimalist-ver-3-laureate.pdf