Get into discussions about the business to find out how technology can benefit the organisation. Talk business, not bits and bytes. Do not talk in technology terms, use business ideas, eg do not say we should use 57,600 modems, but say we are sending large numbers of emails so we need to increase our communications speed. Use parables and imagery, eg map rather than technology strategy. Send a video out across the world if you cannot get there and talk face to face.
Tools Create a core sets of communications.
Senior Management Cheat Sheets - one page summaries. Global Context for Information Management. World Vision put out an annual paper on technological trends, both for strategic direction, and technology itself. Global Information Architecture. Really just a budget, but stated in terms which implies benefit to the organisation.