What is SAVI?

Have you ever had a conversation or meeting that went badly, and wished you had some powerful tool that would help you figure out exactly what went wrong? SAVI is that tool, and more.

SAVI is a precise system that you can use to analyze exactly what happened in any communication — whether it’s a dialogue with your boss or your spouse, a doctor’s consultation, a staff meeting, or even your own conversations with yourself. In addition to getting insight after the fact, you can use SAVI right in the middle of a conversation; when an unproductive communication pattern starts to develop, you can effectively spot it, stop it, and turn it around. SAVI can even help you to prepare for future conversations, with strategies for avoiding common pitfalls and maximizing the clarity of your message.

» Click here for the History of SAVI

The SAVI® Difference

The SAVI approach to communication may be quite different from the way you’re used to thinking about what you say and what others say to you. Some of the distinctive features of SAVI include:

• A focus on behavior. SAVI is not concerned with people’s motivations, intentions, personalities, or psychological diagnoses. It focuses not on what we mean to say, but on what we actually say — our communication behavior.
• Attention to both words and tone. SAVI examines not only what was said, but also how it was said. Voice tone is at least as important as the words we speak, and it plays a critical role in SAVI.
• A nonjudgmental approach. In SAVI terms, there are no good behaviors or bad behaviors. If you’re thinking SAVI, you’re in the position of a researcher or detective, collecting data about the effects of what was said without judging or personalizing it.
• A pragmatic analysis. SAVI categorizes communication behaviors in very practical terms, examining whether they tend to make it easier or harder to get information across. The behavior you use profoundly influences what your listeners hear, how likely they are to take in that information, and what feelings they’re likely to have about what you’re saying.
• Practical strategies. When your communication isn’t working well, you don’t just want to understand what went wrong; you want to know what you need to do to turn things around. With SAVI you get specific, concrete recommendations for changing your behavior to get better results. At the same time, the flexibility of the SAVI system empowers you to develop your own strategies to adapt effectively to any communication context.