How do you find out the requirements for a product in your project? How do you find out how long a certain task will take? How do you make sure your Executive is up to date with where the project is?

Communication is a vital part of project management. To me, it is the most important part. Without good communication, you won’t know whether you are on track, or miles off course. Without good communication, issues can arise that completely surprise you. Without good communication, you won’t know what your project is supposed to achieve.

There are many tools and techniques you can use to improve communication. I’ve talked about some of them in my series on social media tools for project managers. But sometimes it’s important that we go back to basics. And the most basic communication tool we have is talking.

Talking is fantastic. When you are face to face, you can really explore issues, you can tell when there is a pressure point that needs to be discussed, and you can rapidly get to the bottom of any issues. Talking is an amazing tool in our arsenal, but one too many project managers don’t use enough.

Emails and status reports are useful, but they can never beat a good face to face talk. Get out from behind your computer and talk to your team.