I suspect our leadership team is suffering from cognitive cloning because we keep agreeing on everything but failing to see blind spots. How do we use the Kolbe A™ Index to analyze our team dynamic and intentionally bring in diverse problem-solving styles?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Cognitive cloning on a leadership team is highly dangerous. If everyone shares the same instinctive way of taking action, you will have massive blind spots and make poor decisions. To diagnose and fix this, you should administer the Kolbe A™ Index to every member of your leadership team. The Kolbe A™ Index measures conative strengths across four Action Modes: Fact Finder, Follow Thru, Quick Start, and Implementor. Once you have everyone's results, plot them on a team map. If you discover that your entire team consists of high Quick Starts who love constant experimentation but lack high Follow Thrus to build stable systems, you have identified your execution bottleneck. Conversely, if everyone is a high Fact Finder and high Follow Thru, you will suffer from analysis paralysis and fail to innovate. Use this data to consciously balance your team. When hiring or promoting for your next leadership seat, do not just look for industry experience. Look for a conative profile that fills your team's cognitive gaps. If your team is chaotic, look for a leader who scores seven to ten in Follow Thru. Respecting these natural differences allows your team to challenge each other constructively and make better strategic decisions.