While I was working at an educational technology company, I experienced a communication breakdown in an exchange between myself as the project coordinator and the project manager. The medium of communication was the written word in the form of a short email with a detailed spreadsheet attached from the project manager to myself. The email and spreadsheet were intended to introduce a new project, but it created more confusion and questions. This communication was ineffective due to the fact that not enough detail was included in the email to give context to the spreadsheet. The email simply said, "For the project, please see the attached spreadsheet." The attached spreadsheet was for a new project that I was to start. However, I had not been informed of the new project, so I thought the spreadsheet was connected with the current project we were working on because of the similarities. The project manager was not available to meet for several days. This created a delay in starting the project since the project manager failed to provide clear and concise directions to get started.

The negative impact of this communication delayed the start date by one week. This affected the project deadline and daily tasks for those that were involved in the project. Myself, the project manager, the programmers, and operations manager were all affected and had to make adjustments and pivots to our schedule and daily tasks to accommodate and try to make up for lost time. We were not able to complete the project on the original deadline. We also had to communicate with all stakeholders concerning the delay. Even though the impact was not devastating to the company, it was a good reminder to all of us about the importance of using proper communication to have a strong work flow.

Are there any other reasons the communications were ineffective? Were there any other negative impacts or people negatively impacted that your peers did not mention? If so, explain.