self work: the kolbe index

I’m on a serious self-improvement binge at the moment (as you may have noticed), jumping all over new ideas that make sense to me or give me a new perspective on myself. I’m doing it to figure out how to go about this new creative business idea of mine (which is currently very vague, but my ethics are at the core of it). But much of what I’ve found is really useful outside of work, too.
 
I don’t want to bombard you with everything all at once, so I’m going to start a ‘Self Work’ series to share ideas that have changed my life. (It’ll be a tiny series, because there haven’t been many ideas that have changed my life.) Hopefully I’ll give you something to think about, too.
 

 
The Kolbe Index is based on the idea that who we are isn’t just about how smart we are or what our personality is like. There’s another underappreciated aspect to ourselves based on how we work and problem solve. Not just how we want to do things, but how we actually get things done best: it’s our MO, our method of operation. This third aspect to ourselves is called conation, according to Kathy Kolbe. She says we can measure it by figuring out where our instinctive action talents lie. Knowing our unique combination of instincts can help us to accept our strengths and understand why going against our grain is so damn hard (and try to do less of it in our jobs and life).
 
I think this is way more useful to know than our IQ (which will probably just either give us a big head or make us feel dumb, and we can’t really do anything with it by itself) or your personality (which changes over time).
 
I took the online Kolbe Index A test which showed me where I sat in each of four action modes. My highest number was in one area called Quick Start, which means the best way I work is by taking chances, having lots of ideas, meeting challenges, improvising. My next highest number was Fact Finder, which means I like to do a decent amount of research – enough to explain it well to someone, but not enough to be an expert in anything. I don’t thrive on the details. And I do these two things better than the other two MOs, one being Implementor – meaning making physical solutions (I tend to prefer to theorise), and the other Follow Thru – meaning I’m not structured (I’m adaptable and prefer to multitask).
 
All of it makes sense to me, and there were many big ‘aha!’ moments. I’ve struggled a lot with all of these things, but especially the first. Society does not tell us that the chaotic, changing, improvising way of working is really that great (or if it is, it must be confined to a specific time or situation, which is kind of contradictory). And I love that chaos. There is nothing more exciting to me than working this way. And so I’ve been fighting myself a lot, trying to fit myself into a mold that isn’t me, and therefore wears me out or just plain doesn’t work.
 
I laughed for a good three minutes when one of my results screens popped up with:
 
‘You have been asked all your life, “Why can’t you just stay focused? Why can’t you just stick to the plan?”‘
 
I laughed because this computer algorithm that doesn’t even know me spat out one of the most core things about myself, the thing that keeps me up at night, which I couldn’t even shed much light on myself. And then it said I can respond to those questions with, “I prevent being boxed in my staying open to alternatives. My ability to adapt plans helps me take advantage of opportunities.”
 
I get now that my way of working isn’t wrong, and I shouldn’t try to change it, regardless of well-meaning advice that says to rein in my stuff. And since I’m also big on researching, I’m probably not going to make rash, life-ruining dumb decisions. I have good instincts, and now I know to trust them. I should be doing something with most of my time that utilises these skills. That’s not to say I can’t schedule anything or stick to anything, I just need to be aware that it doesn’t come easily to me, and I should try to either figure out a way of working that doesn’t rely largely on those things, or to work with someone who IS good at those things to keep me on track. Otherwise I will get burnt out and frustrated.
 
And that’s just one of the practical things I learnt about myself.
 
There are applications of this far beyond being happier at work – relationships and families and business and schools – and the Kolbe company has taken advantage of all of them, to help people do what they do best, instead of struggling against themselves. And preventing people expecting others to work in the same way as themselves. (By the way, this concept – just knowing that these things in me are concrete ‘me’ things that need embracing, as opposed to me being ADHD and needing a cure – totally diffused what would have been a rather large disagreement between Tim and I last night. He is definitely not a risk-taker like me.)
 
You do have to pay to take the test, but this made so much sense to me that I forked out, and it didn’t disappoint. And just in case you’re wondering (maybe you’re at the non-risk taking side of the Quick Start spectrum), this has been proven by hundreds of thousands of case studies.
 
But if it sounds interesting to you, you could check out these two interesting audio interviews with Kathy Kolbe about her work (the first of which introduced me to The Kolbe Index) and check out the Kolbe website. You might be able to apply some of the things to yourself without doing the test. Although I must note that my guesses about my scores weren’t very accurate, so be careful.