Communication For Technical Professionals

How engineers, developers, and other tech professionals can get a message across clearly when talking to non-tech teams

What you'll learn

Talk to non-experts about your work in a way they will understand

Learn a 5-part framework you can use in almost any communication situation at work.

Discover how to create relevant messages, simplify complex ideas, and communicate them in a way that is jargon-free.

Avoid these common problems: Too much detail , too much jargon, unclear presentations, and people not understanding you

Work out the communication style that works best for your audience and gets your message across.

You'll no longer suffer the frustration of other teams not understanding you.

Say goodbye to the fear of presentation to senior leaders and have confidence your messages are understood.

The result is anything you say will be understood by any audience.

Requirements

The need and desire to communicate clearly with non-technical audiences

Willingness to practice and apply what you learn

An understanding that it takes time to practice the methods build new habits

Description

Get Your Message Across At WorkDo you struggle to get your message across at work? Are your explanations not being understood? Do your business stakeholders, your boss, or other leaders, say you need to learn to speak their language?If yes, the "Get Your Message Across" course will help. In it, you'll learn simple frameworks for communicating in a way that everyone will understand. No matter what the topic is.My name is Chris and I’ve had a career in engineering and IT and now I'm a communication skills author and instructor. I’ve taught at international business schools and trained people in organisations like NATO and Google. The methods in this course are regularly described as some of the most practical and game-changing communication methods the participants have ever seen.Learn a 5-part frameworkIn this course you'll learn a 5-part framework you can use in almost any communication situation at work. I'll show you how to talk to non-technical audiences. How to work out the communication style that works best for your audience and the approach that gets your message across.The course is split into small, easy to follow parts. Each short video provides a specific framework or technique that will improve the structure and clarity your communication. The video lessons are supported by quick activities to help you apply what you learn and develop the methods to fit your personal style.Relevant, relatable, simple, and jargon-free communicationYou'll discover how to create relevant messages, simplify complex ideas, and communicate them in a way that is jargon-free.By using what you learn you'll no longer suffer the frustration of other teams not understanding you. Say goodbye to the fear of presentation to senior leaders and have confidence your messages are understood.The result is anything you say will be understood by any audience.Avoid these common problems:Too much detailToo much jargonUnclear presentationsPeople not understandingYour audience not seeing why your message is importantAchieve these goals:Explain things clearlyCommunicate with any audience (especially non-technical audiences)Quickly create tailor-made messagesGive executives what they need/want to hearGet people's attentionCreate simple messagesBe jargon-free / stop using jargonBe understoodImprove your communication in almost all work situations, including:Talking to different teams or departmentsUpdating senior leaders and executivesExplaining your work to non-expertsGet approval for proposals and ideasTalking about requirementsEducating an audienceGiving status updatesSharing your workSolving problemsPitching an ideaAsking for helpAnd moreFrequently Asked QuestionsQ: My work is very technical. Will this course help me talk to the business teams?A: Absolutely yes! The methods in this course are a step by step process to create a message that is suited to your audience. If you need to talk about a technical topic to a non-technical audience the methods in this course will show you how. There are simple scripts to help build an understandable message. The course includes 10+ methods to simplify a message and examples that are specifically designed to show how to explain incredibly complex and technical ideas to non-technical audiences.Q: Will this course help me communicate with other teams?A: YES! That’s one of primary goals of this course, to help you communicate clearly with any audience - especially people outside your own team. When you use the methods in this course, you will improve the way you communicate with someone outside your team. You'll understand what approach will help them understand and the type of information to include to make sure you get their attention and help them see why your message is important. When you use these methods your messages will be relevant, relatable, simple, and jargon free. This course helps when communicating with any audience - Internal, external, executives, people higher or lower in your organisation, and more. The methods you learn in this course are applicable to any situation where you want people to understand what you are saying, recognise the importance of your message, and quickly understand without the need for detailed explanations.Q: Will this course help me when talking or writing to senior stakeholders and executives?A: Yes it will. Executives and senior leaders appreciate well-structured communication that focused on topics relevant to their goals and objectives. The frameworks in this course show you how to make any message relevant to any audience. The methods you'll learn show how to make the impact of your message clear and how to relate it to the specific goals and outcomes the executives care about. Executives and senior leaders will appreciate the clear way you structure messages and are likely to be impressed with the clarity of your communication. If you've ever been told you need to be "more strategic" or "Learn to speak their language" you will learn those skills in this course.Q: Do I have to complete the whole course before I get any real value?A: No - the content of the course is designed to give you tools you can use right away. You can use the methods in each section as soon as you have finished watching the videos. The more of the course you complete the more benefit you'll get, but you can start using what you learn long before completing all 4 hours of lessons.Q: How long does it take to finish the course?A: The lessons are between 5 and 15 minutes long and the total video duration is 4 hours. The activities take additional time so you should expect to spend 6 hours in total. The videos are self-paced and you can complete them at your own pace.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 Overview of the how to get your message across process

Section 2: Part 1: Audience - Understand their point of view

Lecture 3 Section 1 introduction

Lecture 4 It's all about the audience

Lecture 5 Three important audience characteristics

Lecture 6 Characteristic 1 - Perspective

Lecture 7 Characteristic 2 - Expertise

Lecture 8 Characteristic 3 - Position in the organisation

Lecture 9 How to assess an audience

Lecture 10 ACTIVITY - Assess your audience

Lecture 11 What to do with mixed audiences

Section 3: Part 2: Relevant - Show why they should care

Lecture 12 Section 2 introduction

Lecture 13 What makes a message relevant?

Lecture 14 Showing impact with Goals and Objectives

Lecture 15 Showing impact with Effort

Lecture 16 Showing impact with Outcomes

Lecture 17 How impact changes when you include Time frames

Lecture 18 Improve the relevance by using their perspective

Lecture 19 ACTIVITY - Effort and outcome priorities

Section 4: Part 3: Relatable - Help them understand

Lecture 20 Section 3 introduction

Lecture 21 Why messages must be relatable

Lecture 22 How to make relatable messages

Lecture 23 ACTIVITY - Create a relatable description of your work

Section 5: Part 4: Simple - 11 ways to simplify your message

Lecture 24 Section 4 introduction

Lecture 25 Why we need to give simple messages

Lecture 26 Relevant and relatable messages are simple

Lecture 27 Use summaries to simplify and cut down information

Lecture 28 Focus on WHAT instead of HOW

Lecture 29 The Magic Box keeps unnecessary detail out of sight

Lecture 30 The power of common words

Lecture 31 The Grandparent test

Lecture 32 Visual aids - how they help and hinder your message

Lecture 33 Other tips for simple messages

Section 6: Part 5: Jargon free - Use language they understand

Lecture 34 Become 80 percent jargon free

Section 7: Conclusion and next steps

Lecture 35 Congratulations and next steps

Technical professionals that need to communicate with non-technical people,Software developers, Engineers, IT Security specialists, Analysts, Data scientists,Finance teams, lawyers, and subject matter experts struggling to communicate with people outside your area of expertise