Communicating with Non-Technical Stakeholders

B2 · Upper-intermediate1 hr 6 minIT & TechnologyLesson 6 of 8 · Outline

Aims

Goal: deliver a project update to a non-technical stakeholder leading with business impact — what it means for them first, technical detail only if asked.

The lesson, stage by stage

  1. Warm up5 min

    Warm-up: What it means for the business

    2 warm-up questions

  1. Reading10 min

    Reading: Speaking Business, Not Binary

    Read a 241-word text about Speaking Business, Not Binary

  2. Vocabulary8 min

    Vocabulary: Stakeholder Communication Vocabulary

    7 items

  3. Framework6 min

    Framework: ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

    ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5, 4 steps

  4. Reading10 min

    Reading: Two model stakeholder updates

    Read a 307-word text about Two model stakeholder updates

  5. Practice7 min

    Practice: Stakeholder Language

    Gap-fill exercise, 5 items

  6. Dialogue10 min

    Dialogue: Stakeholder Update Meeting

    Role-play: You're presenting a technical project update to the VP of Sales (3 lines)

  7. Discussion10 min

    Discussion: Your mission: the impact-first update

    3 discussion questions

Open the full lesson

The remaining 7 stages of this lesson, with the procedure, the examples and the exercises, are included with Starter, along with the interactive version you can teach from. Lesson 1 of this course is free: the full plan is on this site, and a free account opens it in the interactive player.

Target vocabulary

In a Tuton account these words become your student's vocabulary deck, so they come back in practice between lessons.

stakeholderlayman's termsanalogyhigh-leveluse casebottleneckroadmap

This plan comes from the Tech Workplace Communication course in the Tuton library. Browse all free lesson plans.