Timing and Pacing of Team Communication

Whether a team is tasked with a developing a new product, incrementally improving an existing situation, or reacting to an emergency, all members of the project team must collectively discuss what they need to be doing, how they will do it, and when it will happen. To understand how these conversations may transpire, we use network pictographs and basic statistics to examine communication timing and pacing in this chapter. Timing identifies what topics a team may benefit from discussing early versus those that may be more appropriately considered later. Pacing will help team leaders consider when and how frequently teams may need to iterate among topics at various times over their lifecycles. The specific topics, timing, and pacing may differ depending upon the conditions under which the team is working. Planning the timing and pacing of conversations are rarely considered explicitly; yet, giving these communication aspects some consideration may facilitate more efficient interactions among team members.