How do you use diagnostic assessments like the Kolbe A Index to help our executive team communicate better and make better decisions during our session days?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

During our sessions, we do not just rely on raw effort to solve problems. We use cognitive and behavioral diagnostics to understand exactly how each member of your leadership team is wired to take action. This is where tools like the Kolbe A Index become invaluable.

The Kolbe A Index does not measure intelligence or personality. Instead, it measures conation, which is your natural, unchanging instinct for taking action. By understanding your team members' conative strengths, we can predict exactly how they will tackle a new quarterly Rock or react to operational stress.

For example, some of your leaders will naturally initiate in Fact Finder, meaning they require a mountain of data before making a decision. Others might initiate in Quick Start, pushing for immediate action and rapid experimentation.

If we do not understand these natural styles, your session days can easily devolve into frustration. The analytical leaders will view the action-takers as reckless, while the action-takers will see the analytical leaders as bureaucratic roadblocks.

By mapping these profiles on our session days, we establish a common language. We can intentionally design how we run our IDS® process so that everyone is heard, but nobody stalls the company. This ensures we make high-quality, high-speed strategic decisions that respect everyone's natural wiring.