It ain't hard to tell when you don't communicate well so worth paying attention when you do, says English journalist Ros Atkins.
"When you get it right or when someone else gets it right, if you can spot what they've done and remember it and perhaps use it yourself next time, then you work up a whole set of techniques that will allow you to communicate well," he tells Susie Ferguson.
English journalist Ros Atkins Photo: LUCY YOUNG FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
Ros Atkins is the BBC's explainer-in-chief and the author of The Art of Explanation.
Whether you're writing an email, talking to a doctor or delivering a news story, using simple language is the best way to get a point across, Ros says.
"If we can get across what we want to say in the most simple, consumable, helpful form – and relevant as well – we give ourselves the best chance of people paying attention."
As a history student at Cambridge University, overwhelmed by the demands of essay writing, he first had to develop a systematic process to identify what he wanted to say.
"Further on in my mid-20s, when I was unemployed and struggling to get gigs, I suddenly realised that this process for identifying what I wanted to say, I could use that in a whole range of situations outside of writing a history essay. That was the penny-drop moment."
In The Art of Explanation, Ros recalls a disastrous interview with The Independent newspaper early in his career. The aspiring journalist had prepared an outfit and some general news chat but had nothing specific to communicate.
"I wasn't clear on why I was there, what I was asking for from them, what role I might do, why I thought I might be suited to that role.
"I had nothing – all I had was some general musings on the news of the day or the news of that week but that wasn't really what was being tested out.
"The purpose of me being in that room at The Independent was to outline the role I thought I could do for them and why I thought I could do it. And I hadn't prepared that or thought about that at all. And I paid for it."
Knowing what you want to say is critical not only in a job interview, Ros says.
"You don't just need to think about what are the subjects that I want to talk about. You need to think about what do I want to say on those subjects? What's the purpose of me communicating?"
There are plenty of brilliant examples of great communication all around us, Ros says, and we should also catch ourselves in the act of achieving this.
"It's important to spot when you're not doing something well but it's equally important to spot when you are doing something well and to think 'Okay, that worked, I'm going to do that again.
"It's also really useful when you can feel someone communicating well with you to think 'Hold on, I can feel that that's worked but why did it work?'"
'If I could think 'Hold on, they're really making this very clear for me, I'm really listening to them' I would try and stop and think 'Well, what have they done there?'
At the BCC in his late 20s and early 30s, Ros became "completely consumed" with spotting strong communication in real time.
"I would be watching a current affairs programme or reading a book or looking at an article or having a conversation with someone or any number of different situations... and if I could think 'Hold on, they're really making this very clear for me, I'm really listening to them' I would try and stop and think 'Well, what have they done there?' And if I could spot it, I'd jot it down.
"When you get it right or when someone gets it right, if you can spot what they've done, and remember it and perhaps use it yourself next time, then you work up a whole set of techniques that will allow you to communicate well."
On the path to improving our communication abilities, it's important to be willing to accept that "the thing that I thought would work isn't working", Ros says.
In 2019, after several months of thinking, he realised the need to redesign video clips from his Outside Source news programme so they'd look better on mobile phones and also find a new journalistic tone.
"There was a palpable sense that people want a journalist to be more blunt and more direct about what was true and what wasn't true, particularly with reference to what politicians were saying.
"Could you create a video that had all of the fact-checking, all of the latest reporting, all of the context, all of the necessary elements that you would need to understand this story in a reasonably comprehensive way? Could you put them all in one place in around five minutes? That was my goal.
"I experimented with tone and language to see if we could be still impartial and factual and all the things we'd want to be but more direct in how we were talking about it.
"One of the biggest growth areas for journalism has been opinion journalism. There's nothing wrong with that at all but as a BBC news journalist, I can't share my opinions and I don't want to either. So I tried to make a feature of the fact that I was an alternative to all of that opinion-based journalism and to say 'Okay, I'm going to turn up in these areas where there's a lot of heat and try and offer some calm, if you like'."
In recent years, Ros has also been delivering levity to London crowds as a drum and bass DJ.
"Whenever I DJ alongside these giants at the scene I feel that they're towering over me, but I practice hard and I do my best to keep up."
One of his all-time favourite drum and bass tracks is 'Atlantis' by LTJ Bukem (the Marky & SPY Rework).
"I can remember the first time I heard it. Everyone had it on cassette, it was on all the sets when I was about 17 or 18. And if you play it now it still sounds brilliant."
