Examples

If ever you are teaching a new concept to an audience, it is always useful to give examples.

Let's say we were trying to explain the difference between gas-powered and electric cars. We could start by saying, "Gasoline powered cars run on gasoline, and electric cars run on electricity." At this point, there's no reason to use an example, as the audience should already know this.

We might continue by saying, "Gas-powered cars need to be refueled at a gas station, where electric cars can be recharged at a charging station or at home." Once again, the audience probably already knew this, so there is no reason to use an example.

We then say, "How fast a gas-powered car accelerates depends on the design of the engine, where electric cars all have high acceleration due to their ability to convert electricity directly into torque."

At this point we have started to introduce concepts that our audience may not be familiar with, and it would be helpful to start using examples.

As we introduced the idea of torque, and not everyone may be familiar with what exactly torque is, or how it's relevant to the topic of cars, we can say, "Torque is the amount of rotational force applied, such as when we are twisting the cap off of a bottle. The harder we have to work to twist-off the cap, the more torque we have to apply."

This demonstrates an important aspect of giving a good example: it should be something that the majority of the people you are speaking to are familiar with, as we are trying to help them envision in their mind how a concept works. Most people have twisted a cap off a bottle, so it's a useful example. We could have instead used the example of using a tire-iron to loosen a lug nut, but while that is also an example of torque, our audience may be less familiar with a tire-iron and a lug nut than with a bottle that has a cap.

Now that we are relatively certain that our audience understands torque, we can continue explaining how this applies to the acceleration of gas-powered vs electric cars by saying, "Gas-powered engines use pistons and gears to convert gas into torque, where electric motors use magnets and wire coils to convert electricity into torque."

At this point, we may have lost our audience. The term, "losing your audience" applies whenever you have said something that the audience did not understand, leaving them confused and unsure of the point you are trying to make, or how your point relates to the overarching concept. If you leave your audience in this state for too long, they will disengage from what you are saying, and ultimately learn nothing. When you are teaching something, this is the difference between being a good instructor, and a bad instructor: A good instructor never loses their audience, where a bad instructor loses their audience almost immediately.

Our challenge now is to get our audience back just in case we lost them, which means we have to get them to envision how pistons and gears use gasoline to create torque, and how magnets and wire coils use electricity to create torque.

One approach might be to say, "Let's say you did a drag race between a gas-powered Porsche and a Tesla. When the race starts, the Porsche engine burns gasoline to push pistons, which then uses gears to turn the wheels of the car. As the Porsche accelerates towards top speed, it has to change gears at exactly the right time to try to maximize the amount of torque transferred from the pistons through the gears to the wheels. The Tesla simply runs electricity directly to the wire coils of the electric motor, which causes magnets to turn the wheels with maximum torque from the very beginning of the race. This is why Teslas accelerate faster than Porsches: transferring power to the wheels from a gasoline powered engine's pistons while shifting through gears is far less efficient than spinning an electric motor."

It's hard to say if this particular example would work for every audience, but it does have several elements of a good example. First, it paints a clear picture in the mind of the audience: A Porsche and a Tesla at the start of a drag race. Then, it walks the audience through how the concepts they just learned apply in the real world. Finally, it makes a claim that should stick in the mind of the audience and help them remember the concept: Teslas accelerate faster than Porsches.

These principles can be applied in business communication anytime you need to help someone understand an unfamiliar concept.

Imagine that we are explaining how our company's product works to a customer. We might start by saying, "Our system uses AI to analyze geographic and real-time environmental data to create reforestation NFTs on a cloud-based blockchain that can be traded on a public exchange to offset your carbon footprint."

At this point, it is a good bet that we have totally lost the customer, and that they have no clue what we are talking about. To help our customer envision how our product works, we can give them a clarifying example as follows:

"Let's say that your company was producing more CO2 than you would like, and that you would like to plant trees to offset your CO2 emissions. You could go outside and plant trees yourself, or you could purchase reforestation tokens on our platform. The proceeds from selling these tokens are used to fund organizations around the world that specialize in planting trees, and they will plant exactly the right number of trees to cancel out the CO2 you are producing, based on the number and type of tokens you purchase."

Whenever you are explaining a new concept to anyone, be sure to use examples to help them envision how the concept works. In the business world, a good example can be the difference between a customer purchasing your products and services, or walking away confused, without a clue as to what you do, or why they would pay for it.