Kolbe Overview
As teams realign around the core strengths of their members, they transform. With the Kolbe insight, we have seen dysfunctional teams turn into standout producers for their company.
We have found that team success is dramatically predicted by the degree to which a team understands and articulates the strengths of its individual members, and assigns them roles in alignment with these strengths.
We use Kolbe with most clients, as it is the only instrument we have found that does two unique things: it reflects the instinctive energy people use when they solve problems and take action; and it predicts and increases the likelihood of the success of teams.
With Kolbe Corp’s analytical tools and our experience as Kolbe Certified Consultants, we work with individuals and teams to help them gain insight into their strengths and problem-solving abilities. For over 30 years, organizations, professionals, and individuals have been using the Kolbe to identify and leverage their natural talent.
The first Kolbe index individuals complete is the Kolbe ‘A’. This is their instinctive energy, and the index has a 96% repeat rate so it is unlikely to change over time.
The Kolbe ‘B’ reflects the instinctive energy the individual thinks their job requires.
The Kolbe ‘C’ captures the instinctive energy the individual’s manager thinks their job requires.
When you have the Kolbe A, B and C, you can identify strain between who the person is and what they think they have to do, and tension between who they are and how their manager wants them to contribute. The C is also useful for hiring. When candidates are being considered for new roles, a team report can be run multiple times with different individuals to see their impact on the team’s synergy.
For most workshops, participants only complete the Kolbe A as it is very helpful in understanding how a person experiences stress and the personalized steps they can take to handle it well. It takes 12-15 minutes to complete online, so pre-work is minimal. From there, we produce individual summaries and coaching reports, a team analysis and A to A reports, which take any two individual profiles and gives each person a customized report on working well with the other.
When used with teams, the Kolbe also provides valuable insights into collaborative strengths as well as potential vulnerabilities. With these insights, the team is better equipped to take advantage of their strengths and adjust for their weaknesses.
What the Kolbe Measures
Unlike other leadership and team assessments that measure personality preferences and cognitive strengths, the Kolbe is the only assessment that measures an individual’s conative ability, which is their inherent talent or natural way of taking action and getting things done.
Conation: action derived from instinct; purposeful mode of striving, drive; it is a conscious effort to carry out self-determined acts
By measuring an individual’s preference towards 4 instinct-driven behaviours, the Kolbe provides a snapshot into what a person will or will not do, given the freedom to act. These behaviours are represented in the four Kolbe Action Modes:
The Kolbe A Index result is a graphical representation of an individual’s instinctive method of operation, or modus operandi (M.O.). The numbers in each Action Mode represent different points on a continuum, rather than relative values. Each point on the continuum indicates a positive trait. There is no such thing as a negative or “bad” Kolbe Index result.
Twelve Ways to Solve Problems
The combination of the four Action Modes® describes 12 unique methods of problem solving, or Kolbe Strengths™. Although we can all solve problems using any of the 12 methods, each of us has four – one in each Action Mode – that allow us to do our best, most efficient, creative work.
No matter what combination of talents an individual brings to the team, each of us is most productive and gets the greatest sense of accomplishment when we operate in our own unique way. We make the biggest impact when we solve problems in ways that are most natural for us.
