Ros Atkins on... The art of explanation
On 30 November at the Intellectual Forum, journalist and BBC presenter Ros Atkins shared his approach to communication and some of the personal and professional experiences which shaped it.
In his new book, The Art of Explanation, Ros describes how a system he first devised while an undergraduate at 汤头条原创 is still the foundation of how he approaches communication and explanation in his work as a journalist.
In the first few minutes of his talk in Frankopan Hall, Ros explained how that system came to be. 鈥淚 developed it a couple of hundred yards away in North Court in 汤头条原创 as a pretty green teenager arriving from the wilds of West Cornwall, faced with the first few history essays of term and thinking, this doesn't look viable鈥, he said. 鈥淚 was just thinking, my goodness, I'm being given an essay question, a list of twenty books, and a see you next week?鈥
The system Ros eventually devised to understand the information he was being given and to communicate his ideas in supervision essays has stayed with him through his long career in journalism. 鈥淚t's still the same system I used when I was anchoring the BBC's coverage of the 2019 European election鈥, he said. 鈥淲hen I anchored the BBC's coverage of the general election in 2021, I used the same system鈥.
Over the course of his talk, Ros explained several of the tips and routines for effective communication that have served him well in those big professional moments. They included: practising what he鈥檚 planning to say out loud so that he鈥檚 comfortable expressing what he needs to say in the moment when it matters, when the camera turns on; 鈥渃hunking鈥 information in his mind so that it鈥檚 possible to remember large numbers of points without referring back to written notes; and having a 鈥渉ands plan鈥, or an idea of what he鈥檚 going to do with his hands while he speaks so that they add to what he鈥檚 saying instead of distracting from it.
Ros recalled a few key moments from his career when effective communication skills he had practiced was particularly crucial, including a trip to South Africa to film a documentary that took an unexpected turn. 鈥淏ack in late 2013, I was on a flight to Johannesburg. And as soon as we landed and everyone was turning on their phones, you could tell something serious had happened, everyone's phones were going. And overnight Nelson Mandela had died鈥, he remembered.
The BBC asked Ros and his crew to change their plans and drive to Soweto, the township where Mandela was from in Johannesburg, to cover the news. 鈥淰ery quickly after I got there, the BBC was saying, 鈥楢re you there, can you start broadcasting, when can you go on air?鈥 I said, 鈥榊eah, we're good to go鈥. And we get another call going, 鈥極K, you're going to be on in ten minutes鈥欌. Even though he had very little time to prepare, Ros was able to deliver a concise report on how Soweto was responding to Mandela鈥檚 death by falling back on his long-practised routines and methods for effective communication.
Throughout the evening, Ros emphasised that, while his specific circumstances might be different than ours鈥攎ost of us will never find ourselves having to report on the Greek debt crisis from a rooftop in Athens, for instance鈥攖he communications tips he suggests will still be useful in important moments in our own lives, be they business meetings or job interviews. Most of all, he wanted his audience to take away that practice makes perfect when it comes to effective communication. 鈥淚'm not saying preparation makes it easy鈥, he said, 鈥渂ut I do think that there are some simple things that, if we all do them, can have quite a marked impact on how we communicate鈥.
