When we run our weekly IDS® sessions, our team struggles to identify the underlying structural or conative friction that causes process failures, often blaming our software or systems instead of how our roles are mapped. How do we get to the root conative mismatch during IDS®?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is easy to blame a software platform or a broken process when the actual bottleneck is a conative mismatch on your leadership team. When you run your weekly IDS® process, you must look beyond the physical systems and analyze how the human beings in those seats are wired to take action.

To find the root cause, use the Kolbe A Index to evaluate your team's natural problem-solving instincts. Often, a process is failing not because the technology is broken, but because a high Quick Start leader is initiating rapid operational changes without a high Follow Thru team member in place to build the supporting systems. Conversely, a process might stall because a high Fact Finder is overcomplicating simple workflows.

During the Identify step, ask whether the owner of the failing process actually has the conative wiring to execute it. Compare their Kolbe A Index results with the expectations of the seat on your Accountability Chart™. If there is significant conative stress, the solution is not to buy better software. The solution is to realign the seat or delegate the specific task to someone with the matching instinct.

Force your team to be humbly-confident during these discussions. This means being vulnerable enough to admit when a task goes against your natural conative wiring. By framing the issue around cognitive and conative alignment rather than personal failure, you solve the bottleneck permanently.