It was an intensive project. People were working on it for months. Extensive conversations involved people from each department. Every detail was looked at and planned for. Everyone knew the timing, what had to happen, how long the downtime would be and who all was involved. There was a ton of communication. Only that communication was amongst the groups involved in making the project happen. There wasn’t any direct communication with the customer, creating surprise and confusion when the downtime happened. It was a blip that people got over, but the frustration didn’t need to happen.
It is a common business situation. Whether you are in leadership or working on a project, it seems like all you have done is communicate. The real question is, whom are you communicating with? If it is only the people who are working on the project, initiative, or your senior leadership team and not those who are impacted, you are not communicating enough. When was the last time you stepped back to think about how you are getting your message out? If you aren’t talking about it all the time, its time to take a step back and rethink your communication strategy.