What are the best communication strategies for explaining vehicle dynamics to non-technical stakeholders?

1 Know your audience

The first step to any successful communication is to know your audience. Who are they? What are their goals, needs, and expectations? What is their level of technical knowledge and familiarity with vehicle dynamics? How much detail and jargon can they handle? By answering these questions, you can tailor your message to suit their interests, preferences, and background. For example, if you are talking to a potential customer who wants to buy a high-performance car, you may want to focus on how vehicle dynamics affects the driving experience, safety, and fuel efficiency. If you are talking to a senior manager who is overseeing a vehicle dynamics project, you may want to highlight the key objectives, milestones, and deliverables. If you are talking to a journalist who is writing a story about vehicle dynamics, you may want to provide some background information, examples, and quotes.

2 Use simple language

One of the biggest challenges of explaining vehicle dynamics to non-technical stakeholders is to avoid using too much technical language and acronyms. Technical language is useful for precise and accurate communication among experts, but it can be confusing and intimidating for non-experts. Therefore, you should use simple and plain language whenever possible, and define any technical terms or acronyms that you have to use. For example, instead of saying "the yaw rate is the rate of change of the vehicle's heading angle", you could say "the yaw rate is how fast the vehicle turns left or right". Instead of saying "the vehicle has an active suspension system that adjusts the damping and stiffness of the springs and shock absorbers", you could say "the vehicle has a smart suspension system that adapts to different road conditions and driving styles".

5 Use feedback and questions

The final and most important strategy to explain vehicle dynamics to non-technical stakeholders is to use feedback and questions. Feedback and questions are essential for checking the understanding, clarifying the doubts, and engaging the interest of your audience. Feedback can include verbal or non-verbal cues, such as nods, smiles, frowns, or comments, that indicate how well your audience is following and responding to your explanation. Questions can include open-ended or closed-ended queries, such as "What do you think of this concept?" or "Do you understand how this works?", that invite your audience to share their thoughts, opinions, or concerns. By using feedback and questions, you can create a dialogue, rather than a monologue, with your audience, and adjust your explanation accordingly.