Our leadership team gets highly frustrated during IDS® because our high Fact Finders want endless data before making a decision, while our high Quickstarts want to jump straight to a solution. How do we use our Kolbe profiles to balance these styles without stalling our meetings?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This friction is a classic conative clash between different problem-solving instincts. Your high Fact Finders are wired to gather detailed information and mitigate risk, while your high Quickstarts are wired to innovate, take risks, and move fast. Both instincts are valuable, but when they clash during IDS®, your meeting can grind to a halt.

To resolve this, you must establish clear rules of engagement based on your team's Kolbe profiles. During the Identify phase, honor the Fact Finders. Let them ask clarifying questions to ensure you are looking at the root cause, but set a strict boundary: they can only ask for data that already exists. Do not allow them to assign new research projects during the meeting.

When you move to the Solve phase, leverage your Quickstarts. Let them brainstorm creative solutions. However, the Integrator must step in to ground the discussion. The Integrator should challenge the Quickstarts to explain how their proposed solution fits within your core processes and quarterly capacity.

By explicitly acknowledging these natural wiring differences, you can stop team members from taking the friction personally. Emphasize that you need the Fact Finders to prevent sloppy decisions, and you need the Quickstarts to prevent analysis paralysis. Balancing these modes is how you make fast, well-informed decisions.