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The Fish Isn’t Sick …The Water’s Dirty®
How to Honestly Keep Your ‘Communication’ Waters Clean, to Boost Performance, Teamwork and Leadership

How does this impact your organization?

• The average employee loses 7 weeks of productivity every year because of troublesome and unresolved communication issues.
• Lack of open, honest communication is at the root of 80 % of problems at work.
• Upwards of 75 % of employees who leave their jobs do so because of communication issues and relationship issues with their boss– not money.
• #1 Factor that drives employees to be engaged in their job is their relationship with their boss.
• 91 % of people lie regularly and the #1 reason they do is fear.

What is the fish being sick all about?

Communication problems don’t spring out of nowhere and are rarely one-sided. Just as the fish isn’t sick, we aren’t sick—nor are others. Rarely do our problems occur in isolation. It’s the waters we swim in — the environment that we communicate in — that gets muddied through personality conflicts, office politics, internal conflict, drama, gossip, negativity, “Yes-People,” repetitive conversations, poor information flow and ineffective meetings.

What’s the underlying problem and bottom-line costs?

The root cause of most problems at work is lack of honesty and the subsequent withholding. For example, how often have you said to yourself, “If they had just told me what was bothering them and what they wanted, I could have done something about it?” or “If I just had all the necessary information to do my job, I could have made a better decision in a fraction of the time and done it so much better?” This problem is toxic to every relationship, at every level, within every organization.

Most people are unaware how much simply not being honest curbs teamwork, stunts innovation, wastes millions in productivity and restricts the ability to generate new business. It’s toxic to every relationship, at every level, within every organization. Your costs rise when:

• Vital information is not shared in a timely manner, causing problematic contracts and failed projects.
• Complete information is withheld, so poor decisions are made.
• Departments don’t share important information and work effective with each other.
• People work around each other instead of directly with each other.
• People leave their jobs because they have had enough.
• People waste time in meetings by not sharing the truth (and the real meetings go one outside the scheduled ones).
• People hide behind email instead of talking to each other to resolve issues.

What’s the Answer?

Our landmark seminar, “The Fish Isn’t Sick… The Water’s Dirtyâ.” In this honest communication and conflict management seminar you will learn The Honesty EdgeÔ system that effectively and consistently boosts performance, teamwork and leadership. The Honesty EdgeÔ system requires no testing, analyzing, or categorizing of people. Why? Because this proprietary system is based on the way the human mind thinks and has been refined by years of research working with people from a wide array of businesses, associations and government organizations.

What’s the benefit?

After learning the practical, hands-on Honesty EdgeÔ system, you will be able to honestly and openly resolve any issue and work effectively with anyone – no matter how difficult. The eye-opening system produces six primary results:

• Increased Performance
• Increased Teamwork
• Increased Levels of Customer Service
• Increased Decision-Making Effectiveness
• Increased Leadership Effectiveness
• Increased Inter- and Intra- Departmental Communication

The Fish Isn’t Sick…The Water Is Dirty® seminar shows you how we unknowingly encourage others not to be honest and how we can turn the situation around. You’ll discover the real reasons why its so difficult to work with some people. You’ll learn how to identify the sources of issues before they become huge problems. You’ll learn why most people don’t ask questions, search for feedback or give others the benefit of the doubt — and you’ll learn what you can do about it.

With The Honesty Edge system, you’ll learn how to:

• Eliminate communication breakdowns and personality differences with the most difficult people
• Confront situations in ways that build and strengthen relationships
• Identify and prevent problems that cause projects and contracts to fail
• Reduce time wasted in unnecessary conversations and meetings
• Prevent others from undermining or sabotaging conversations
• Receive critical information, ideas and advice needed to effectively do your job
• Meet deadlines consistently—on time and on budget
• Reduce defensiveness, distress and closed-minded thinking
• Work effectively with highly emotional people
• Turn negative conversations into solution-oriented discussions
• Manage expectations
• Successfully sell ideas and garner reliable commitments
• Breathe new life into seemingly dead or hopeless relationships
• Increase the sharing of ideas that help the growth of the organization
• Reclaim significant energy and money now being wasted on communication breakdowns

Here is what people have to say about the results they’ve seen:

"I used Steven Gaffney's communication strategies to win a $20 million contract that we had previously lost." - Alison Rosen, Deputy Group Manager

"Steven is a miracle worker! The communication tactics and skills that Steven taught our group have created a common language and addressed issues that I never thought in a million years could have been resolved. The seminar has significantly improved our team spirit, productivity and customer service." - Cyndi Urbano, Division Manager Corporate Creative Services

Real-World Application We’ve all attended seminars that engage us in the classroom but have little use in the real world. To ensure practical, real-world applicability, Steven Gaffney shares exactly how participants have used what they learned in his seminars to produce extraordinary results. And to make sure the scenarios discussed are most useful to you, he chooses his examples based on the research done before your session using the Implementation Integrator Process described below.

Next, you will be asked to choose an actual challenging issue as a case study to work on during the session. You will be shown exactly how to apply what you learn to resolve the situation.

By the conclusion of your session there will be no doubt how to use what you have learned as well as how to apply it to other difficult situations.

The Results Package includes:

• Telephone interviews and analysis to specifically tailor your seminar using the Implementation Integrator Process (See the description below)
• One follow-up tele-seminar with designated attendees to remind them of key strategies, provide additional coaching to fine tune their skills and provide them with some additional relevant tips
• Continuing access to Steven Gaffney (or one his certified coaches) to private, one-on-one coaching for three months following the seminar and
• Thirty copies of Steven’s book, Just Be Honest: Authentic Communication Strategies that Get Results and Last a Lifetime, which includes many of the key elements from his session.

Implementation Integrator Process While others pay lip service to customizing seminars to meet clients' specific needs, Steven Gaffney delivers. The Implementation Integrator Process™ allows us to carefully design and tailor our seminars by drawing from the vital background information collected from our pre-program questionnaire, in-depth industry research, confidential telephone interviews and emails with key decision makers and participants. Through the IIP process, we identify and address your organization's unique and often hidden challenges and deliver highly tailored presentations that leave our clients saying, "It's as if they work here." Steven Gaffney will invest considerable time and effort to ensure your challenges are identified, addressed and resolved.

What's My Next Step?

Call Christina Taylor, Operations & Business Manager, to set up a complimentary phone conversation with Steven Gaffney. Together we can determine if this program is what your organization has been looking for to resolve problems, increase productivity and allow you to focus on the business of business. Call us at (703) 241-7796.

Our Guarantee Bring your toughest challenge or issue and together we will resolve it. Guaranteed. Steven’s organization will work with you for as long as it takes, even if it means investing additional time outside of the seminar, at no additional charge to you.

About Steven Gaffney Many people talk about honest communication in the workplace, but Steven Gaffney is the premier expert on the subject. Thousands of people credit Steven Gaffney’s keynote addresses, breakout sessions and intense multi-day seminars with making the critical difference in helping them communicate honestly, motivate themselves and lead others. Steven’s speeches and seminars, combined with his print interviews and media appearances from his two books, “Honesty Works! Real-World Solutions to Common Problems at Work & Home” (2006) and “Just Be Honest: Authentic Communication Strategies that Get Results and Last a Lifetime,” (2002) have enabled him to educate people on how to talk honestly and work effectively with anyone. His clients include Marriott, SAIC, American Express, BP, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, American Cancer Society, The United States Navy, Fannie Mae, Raytheon and many others.

The Steven Gaffney Company’s clients have included:

Marriott, American Express, SAIC, BP, Navy, NASA, Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Texas Instruments, and American Cancer Society. Serving such a diverse clientele has enabled Steven to create and implement innovative, cross-discipline solutions to achieve maximum effect.

E-mail: honest@stevengaffney.com