We have the budget to either hire two expensive AI developers or upskill our existing operations team on prompt engineering, and we cannot agree on the right strategic move. How do we use the Kolbe A Index to evaluate if our current people have the natural conative strengths to drive our technical transition?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Before you spend thousands of dollars on expensive outside developers or waste months trying to train people who are naturally resistant to change, you need to understand your team's instinctive strengths. The Kolbe A Index measures conation, which is how people naturally solve problems when given freedom. This is different from personality or intelligence. To determine if upskilling your current operations team is viable, look at their Kolbe profiles, specifically their Quickstart and Fact Finder scores. Employees with high Quickstart scores naturally thrive in chaos, love experimenting with new tools, and learn through rapid trial and error. They will adopt prompt engineering quickly because they enjoy the experimental nature of AI. However, if your team is dominated by high Fact Finder and high Follow Through profiles, they naturally require deep historical data, structured frameworks, and proven methodologies before taking action. These individuals will resist upskilling on fast-moving, unpredictable AI tools and will suffer from severe frustration. If your current team lacks high Quickstart energy, you must hire outside talent to lead the implementation on your Accountability Chart. Matching the technical transition to your team's natural conative wiring ensures you do not waste resources on training programs that are fundamentally misaligned with how your people solve problems.