Why the Tower of Babel Failed?

2 mins

"What if, and I know this sounds odd, we communicated with the team members throughout the project?" - A fictional project manager.

Apart from brilliant ideas, good planning, and resources, a crucial key to making any team endeavor complete and successful is communication.

The Mythical Tower

The book The Mythical Man-Month mentions the Tower of Babel, a biblical tale about humanity's grand and ambitious project: building a tower that reaches heaven. The humans were united to work together, and it could have been one of the greatest achievements of the human race—if it hadn't been sabotaged by God, causing them to speak different languages. The grandiose vision ended up as a great fiasco.

The manpower was still there, all the planning and resources were in place, but when they couldn’t understand each other, they couldn't coordinate. As we all know from our experiences working on any project, we don't even need God for that, and we speak the same language!

Effective Communication

Effective communication keeps everyone aligned and moving in the same direction. It’s not just a peripheral activity that happens alongside work; it is an essential part of the work itself that requires careful consideration, time, and effort.

Since there are many moving parts in a team project, effective communication must facilitate coordination. And since these moving parts could collide or create conflicts, it must also promote harmony. All of this leads to productivity.

So, the lesson we can apply to project management is to be mindful of our communication. Good communication must be easy to understand, timely, and delivered via appropriate mediums.

Be kind, be happy.