Keith (Stone) Greaves, Veteran Radio Journalist, Broadcaster and Trainer, has appeared at a public presentation in a church setting at which he spoke on various matters regarding general communication.
The Montserrat-born former BBC Producer/Presenter, with some forty years in the field of radio journalism, now serves at Radio Anguilla and describes himself as a “Regionalist and World Citizen”. He was invited to speak at the Mount Fortune Seventh-day Adventist Church on Saturday, July 16, where the congregation joined the rest of the North Caribbean Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in observing Communication Day.
An ardent Adventist, Mr. Greaves held his audience captive as he spoke on what was a very wide topic, but particularly narrowed down to suit the church setting and the limited time for his well-prepared delivery.
“How many of you ever heard about the KSS Method?” he asked as he got into the heart of his presentation. “The KSS Method is simply: keep it simple, stupid, and that’s a tried and tested format.” He went on: “When I said simple, you don’t have to be simplistic. You don’t have to talk down to people. You talk across to people – not over their heads. Communication is a dialogue. What KSS says is that everybody will hopefully understand. The educated, the academic and the ordinary people will understand. Always bear that in mind: keep it simple. You don’t have to show off with your vocabulary way up there.”
Some of the other main points he made are summarised as follows:
• Communication is not to be taken lightly. Everyday we communicate with each other: at home, school, the workplace, social clubs and other gatherings. Don’t feel that outside in the community you can communicate in a particular way, but in church you can do so in any old or careless fashion. Apply the same principles of communicating well in church.
• Your attitude is very important. When speaking at the podium your mind must be sync with what you are saying. Your facial expression must not tell your audience one thing and your body language another thing. Persons who slouch or lean when speaking are sending a negative signal to those to whom they are communicating.
• If you don’t breathe properly, you can’t present properly. You won’t get hoarse, your voice won’t crack up and you won’t need water if you breathe properly. When you speak from your throat you have a tendency to get those problems. When you speak from your tummy you get power in your voice without shouting. Sometimes you won’t need to use a microphone if you are breathing and speaking properly. Before you speak, take a deep breath and pause for composure to avoid nervousness.
• Look straight at, and connect with, your audience without necessarily having to move.
• The microphone is to amplify your voice so there is no need to shout. Don’t tap the diaphragm of the microphone. Doing so can damage it – the response becomes low and then you will have to discard it. When testing a microphone, speak in it and from the side across the diaphragm to avoid distortions of speech.
• Vary the tone of your voice, and speed, to add variety to your reading thus avoiding monotone and boredom.
• A presentation consists of three parts: an opening, a middle part and a closing. Even if you stray in the middle, get your opening and closing tight. It is the first and last things that will stay with a listener.
• If your writing is not good, you can’t present it properly.
• Cellular phone etiquette: It is very distracting to presenters when a cellular phone rings. Be very mindful and respectful of other people. When speaking on a cellular phone, there is no reason to yell. Speak softly as the applications in the phone are very powerful. The average person talks three times louder on a cellular phone than he or she does during a normal conversation, and this is unnecessary.
• When you go out with your spouse or partner, do not have your cellular phone as a third party, paying more attention to it than communicating with the person in your company. The cellular phone has basically taken away the art of everyday face to face communication.
• When in church, or at certain other places of gathering, mute your cellular phone. Do not turn it off completely in case of an emergency call. If you want to have a cellular phone conversation, or to send a text message to someone, move away from other persons to your own space. Cellular phone users should be courteous and respectful to persons around them.
The above are just titbits of what Mr. Greaves told his very attentive brothers and sisters in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Thought-provoking, engaging and inspiring, his concise presentation was followed by an active question and answer period.
