Interactive Vs. Push Vs. Pull Communication in Project Management

Interactive Communication

Interactive Communication is a fairly self-explanatory term. As the name suggests, it is a multidirectional form of communication. When you require an immediate response, and when the information you are communicating is sensitive with the possibility of being misinterpreted, you turn to interactive communication. It involves one or more people exchanging thoughts and ideas, where participants respond in real-time.

Project managers prefer in-person interactive communication. When communication is performed over media, like video conferences, phones, meetings, etc., a project manager may not be able to pick up on facial expressions and body language of the stakeholders.

To understand this concept better, consider an example. Let’s say you need to have a meeting with the stakeholders about the progress of a project, or you have a glitch in the project. Interactive communication would be preferred over using mails to convey messages and having them respond by email. Rather than being unsure of what is happening, you’d be better off calling for a meeting or a video conference so you can convey the problem to them and receive feedback.

Examples of Interactive communication:

Any face to Face contacts:

• Meetings
• Phone Calls / Conference
• Video Calls / Conference

Push Communication

This kind of communication is from sender to receiver, and is preferable when you distribute information, yet are not looking for an immediate response—or if the matter you are trying to convey is not urgent or sensitive. However, as soon as the recipient views the message, some action is required.

Push communication includes memos, letters, emails, reports, faxes, etc. It is not face-to-face but is instead typically done through some written medium. The one disadvantage of this type of communication is that the sender can only identify that the message has been successfully sent. Some email systems can notify you when an email has been opened, but this feature can’t guarantee that the recipient has understood the message trying to be communicated.

As another example, you have a technical issue that demands immediate attention, and you alert the tech department of your company to fix it. You email IT, but no one is available that day, so no one received your email. You only know that the mail you wrote has been successfully sent. You do not know if it has been received. You will only know the email has been received when desktop support comes to fix the problem.

Examples of Push communication:

• Letters
• Memos
• Emails

Pull Communication

Pull communication enables the receiver to gain access to information, but it requires the receiver to initiate the communication to obtain the information. Pull communication is appropriate for purely informational communications. Even if the recipients do not read it, the project will not be affected.

Pull communication doesn’t involve pulling in a reader to read your message. Instead, pull communication is all about providing group access to common information. The receiver, however, must recover this information. This method is used for a large audience who require access to information for their use.

When your communication is informational, make use of this kind of information. If a receiver does not read your message, it will in no way affect the project. Since information will be accessed only when the need arises, pull communication is known to be the most appropriate kind of communication. Methods of pull communication include posting information on websites, wikis, knowledge repositories, bulletin boards, etc.

A sample pulls communication scenario would be when you have enrolled in one of Simplilearn’s project management courses. You need access to more information about the subject, and you begin to search for relevant information from the Articles/eBooks that are available on our website.

Examples of Pull communication:

• Websites
• Bulletin board

Next, let's have a look at the differences between Project Management: Interactive Vs. Push Vs. Pull Communication

Communication Styles Differences

Below is a table that describes and compares Interactive Vs. Push Vs. Pull Communication in project management.

That was all about the differences between Interactive Vs. Push Vs. Pull Communication.

Sample Questions

Here are some sample questions you may see on your PMP certification exam.

1. What term describes the information that is sent to recipients at their request via Web sites, bulletin boards, eLearning, knowledge repositories like blogs, and other means?
   a. Push communications
   b. Pull communications
   c. Interactive communications
   d. Customer communications
   
   
2. Communication between two or more parties performing multi-directional exchange of information is called ______?
   a. Interactive communication
   b. Pull communication
   c. Push communication
   d. Multi-directional communication
   
   
3. You need to resolve a workplace conflict involving several members of your project team. Which communication technique is best suited for this?
   a. Pull Communication
   b. E-mail
   c. Interactive Communication
   d. Push Communication

Conclusion

If you are considering working toward your PMP exam, Simplilearn offers a variety of project management courses that will help you pass, including the PMP Certification Training Course. Our PMP training courses are conducted by certified, highly experienced professionals with at least 10 years of experience.

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