UNDERSTAND:
Human Nature |
Conation |
Kolbe Wisdom |
Kolbe A Index |
Action Modes |
Kolbe Strengths |
Three Parts of the Mind |
Research/Validity |
Articles |
Testimonials
| KOLBE InSite July 2002 InSite Newsletter |
||
| In this issue: Quote of the Month Work Stress is Deadly New Kolbe B and Kolbe C Index Kolbe Touted for Hiring Recreation or Leisure: What's the Difference? The Implementor as Gardener Isn't Good Synergy Enough? |
||
| Quote of the Month All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. Ralph Waldo Emerson ^ return to top |
||
| Work Stress is Deadly New research published by Professor Benjamin Amick III of the University of Texas indicates that it isn't just people in diverse, high-demand jobs who can suffer terrible consequences from stress. So can people in monotonous and low-control jobs. In fact people who are in boring jobs where they perceive they have no control over outcomes are 33-35% more likely to die prematurely than those who have more active jobs. Further, people stuck in jobs in which they have little or no say over how they spend their workdays have a 50% higher risk of premature death than do people who have some control over their daily routine. These incredible conclusions are gleaned from data collected by the University of Michigan over 34 years on 25,000 households. Dr. Amick focused the data to see whether people's life expectancy is affected by the kind of work they do and found startling results. Moral of the story? Companies can reduce the costs of stress-related illness by training supervisors to manage the results and not the process. Kolbe can help put employees into positions for which they are ideally suited, and when they are ready to take control of the process, guarantee positive outcomes. If you'd like to read more about this original research, a good summary can be found at: http://www.africaonline.com/site/Articles/1,3,48343.jsp ^ return to top |
||
| New Kolbe B and Kolbe C Index In a constant attempt to respond to client needs and to provide the most updated tools in the marketplace, Kolbe Corp is pleased to announce a significant change in the makeup of its B and C indexes. As most of you know, the B and C offer a perspective on the job from the point of view of the incumbent and any third party (usually the direct supervisor). New versions of these instruments are composed of 24 questions, rather than 36, although they remain fully validated as before. The chief advantage of this reduction in number of questions is the amount of time required to complete the indexes, which is a major savings for any busy supervisor suddenly faced with completing six or more C indexes. Another upgrade is a reorientation of questions leading to the identification of the Implementor Action Mode. While the new questions are still pointed toward the tangible expression of talent, there are more options representing a broader base of responses than those perceived to be only "blue collar." Overall we think you will be pleased with the changes which are already available online. Both the 24-question and the 36-question versions of the Kolbe B and Kolbe C Indexes can be scored via SpeedScore. However, please discontinue use of the 36-question test. If you would like a PDF file of the new Index, email info@kolbe.com. We are sure your customers will want the shortened versions as soon as they become aware of them. ^ return to top |
||
| Kolbe Touted for Hiring Sherry Burks, our Licensed Consultant at CFR in Tulsa, OK has let us know of another appearance by Kolbe in Rough Notes Magazine. An insurance industry organ of wide readership, Rough Notes focuses on articles of interest to its members leading to improvement in delivery of financial services. An industry topic of continuing interest is hiring the right people. As part one of a multi-part series, the declared intent of an article entitled "Avoiding Bad Hire Days" in the July 2002 issue is to present the positive results of testing prospective employees. One of two programs presented, Kolbe is touted by the Peel & Holland Financial Group of Benton, KY as a critical tool first used in conjunction with their reorganization last year and later to address ongoing communication issues. However, the strongest case is made for using Kolbe to help screen prospective employees to add to this award-winning agency. Roy Riley, Chief Operating Officer, says it very succinctly: "If you don't test, and then hire the wrong person, by comparison, the test is pennies. The test is more of an investment-it's a tool to be sure you're making the right hiring decision." We couldn't have said it better. If you would like to read the entire article, click on www.roughnotes.com. ^ return to top |
||
| Recreation or Leisure: What's the Difference? When the day is done, when you have succeeded to the extent possible in your efforts to intend, attempt, and commit, you may still have energy to burn. Recreation is an activity that engages unused conative energy. It can be used to strive toward tagging a player out at second base, growing award-winning roses, or skydiving. It can also be used to do what other people call work. Steve's MO is 9723. His work at an insurance company requires him to use his energy in Fact Finder and Follow Thru. However, at the end of the workday, several times a week, Steve would rush off to class. He was attending law school at night. His co-workers would shake their heads, and advise Steve that he was trying to "burn the candle at both ends" and he would soon burn himself out. What they did not understand was that if you have unused drive in any Action Mode, you will be drawn into an activity to use your unspent energy. Steve's 9 in Fact Finder was not used fully on the job and so he was naturally drawn to activities like taking classes and gathering information with his goal being a law degree. For him it was a recreational activity. Because most of us are likely to commit our initiating and responding modes to income-earning efforts, our preventative modes will often be the source of our recreational effort. Using unspent energy for recreational activities is a great way to keep our MO in balance. Leisure, on the other hand, is the non-pursuit of any goal. It is the absence of effort, the turning off of our conative striving. It is when you float in the water instead of swimming. It's when you read something with no redeeming value. Leisure for you could be watching the waves hit the beach or sitting in the park listening to the birds. How does the song go? "Summer time and the livin` is easy, fish are jumpin" .... There is one executive who makes it clear that he has no intention of actually catching anything when he goes fishing. "My friends consider fishing a recreational activity, but for me it is pure leisure. Putting a line in the water is merely an excuse for enjoying a lazy morning watching the fog lift. If a fish hooks himself, I consider it a nuisance." By providing time for taking in sights, sounds, and smells, and for tasting and touching, leisure helps us rejuvenate conatively. We need do nothing about leisure but be open to it and provide time for it in our busy schedules. To read more in depth, refer to Kathy Kolbe's book Conative Connection: Acting on Instinct, pp. 134-141. ^ return to top |
||
| The Implementor as Gardener To those of us who live in the abstract world more than the concrete one, it is sometimes difficult to find language that aptly describes the wonderful talent of the initiating Implementor. Try this. In a book called The Gardner's Year written in 1929 by a Czech author, one can find these wonderfully descriptive sentences: "Let no one think that real gardening is a bucolic and meditative occupation. It is an insatiable passion, like everything else to which a man gives his heart." He goes on to describe real gardeners as sometimes oblivious to the pretty things that other people admire since they concentrate instead on controlling the earth. He takes the description so far as to say that a gardener in Eden would likely forget to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; he would rather look round to see how he could manage to take away from the Lord some barrow loads of the paradisaic soil. ^ return to top |
||
| Isn't Good Synergy Enough? The best questions come from our licensed consultants who are out on the firing line every day dealing with client issues. A recent question is a good one to share. The consultant was working with a client whose Team Synergy was 21% - 50% - 29%, well within the comparable range for Ideal Synergy. This was good news but the client was confused because issues were being raised around the 67% Fact Finder initiation, 50% Follow Thru initiation and 67% Quick Start prevention. The question was: With near perfect synergy, how could there still be problems? This is a very good question and the answer is not readily apparent. We do focus first on synergy because our research shows that when there is a proper balance of "push and pull" from differing methods of problem solving, with a good amount of accommodation in the middle to bridge the differences, teams are generally more successful. This is the genesis of the 25% - 50% - 25% rule that we work with to quantify these differences. However, even with perfect synergy there could be some significant impediments to productivity lurking in any given Action Mode� through inertia and polarization. While the team may have the desirable balance between initiating solutions and preventing problems, energy may be so skewed in any given Action Mode that another set of problems appear. If a preponderance of problem-solving energy is skewed toward researching the problem, inertia will keep the team from moving forward with a solution. If half of the team is busy creating systems while the other half is busy breaking the restraints of the ones already in place, and no one is mediating the differences, then it will bog down in internal conflict and having good synergy is not going to prevent that. So improving productivity through the right alignment of instinctive problem-solving methods is a two-pronged approach. First we have to have the right allocation of energy among the prevent, respond and initiate zones. Then the trick is to preserve that balance while making adjustments in a particular Action Mode that may be out of whack. ^ return to top |
You might also be interested in
Powered By Instinct, by Kathy KolbeConative Connection, by Kathy Kolbe
Pure Instinct, by Kathy Kolbe
