The Conative Connection: Uncovering the Link Between Who You Are and How You Perform

by Kathy Kolbe

Book Overview

A critically acclaimed bestseller in hardcover, The Conative Connection introduces the rediscovery of conation, the domain of the mind that dictat es how we act. Kolbe has developed a simple method to quantify an individual's approach to action, and she shows how to harness rather than work against innate and highly individual creative instincts.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0201570955
• ISBN13: 9780201570953
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
• Length: 600 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Useful, beneficial info!

The Kolbe Method identifies your personal, natural mode of operation of how you approach & do...anything (problem solve) Go to Kathys website! Get her other books! Major corporations and sports teams have their people take Kolbe assesments so they can thrive. Kolbe results are your raw striving instincts from birth, BEFORE either emotion or logic come into play. It is NOT your personality type. It is NOT your temperament. So it's the great place to start. I took the test to identify my "MO" and it accurately reflected how I WILL and WON'T to things. It validated why I dread certain situations/jobs/methods/tasks/etc. And validated why I absolutely LOVE DOING and THRIVE IN other situations/jobs...etc. I can honor my childrens MOs. I now know why those High "Implementor" Mode folks like extreem sports, craft making professions or alligator wrestling...that before, baffled me. Or those damned High "Quick Starts" who are so spur of the moment (like Robert Kiyosaki) A neighbor is a High Fact Finder and High Follow Through. But a Low Quick Start and Low Implementor. He loves to stay home to read books about everything and do thorough geneology, NEVER makes a quick decision etc. I can't stop by suddenly to see if he wants to go out to eat NOW. I have to run it by him before hand for him to be comfortable. It's gender-race-culture-experience-intelligence NEUTRAL math stats. And proves accurate for all people (unless they are deceiving the test or in a burnt-out, crisis state) *I compared my Kolbe results (WILL and WON'T DO base programming) With my Myers-Briggs Temperement Type (Keirsey.com) And then with my personality type (Enneagram Institute-it's also MATH, not zodiac) And Hot Dog! I'm LIBERATED!!! Key point is that Kolbe identifys 4 distinct action categories of how you initially mechanically approach and process input BEFORE your emotion or logic really come into play. So layer the Kolbe findings with other facets of your personal design, then life experiences and skill levels to gain clarity and ultimate appreciation for yourself & others!!!

A revolutionary way of understanding what makes you tick.

Kathy Kolbe's penetrating insights into our conative (or instinctual) dimension are nothing less than revolutionary. It would be hard to make a better investment in understanding yourself than to buy this book ... Doing both (which led to my learning my MO as a Quick Start / Fact Finder) confirmed and clarified my gut-level instincts about my own talents, and provided direction for leveraging my strengths while pointing out how not to get blind-sided by my weaknesses! --Karen Page

Answering the crucial questions

Most of us know at least one enormously talented person who seems to be adrift, not accomplishing much. And we know someone else with what would appear to be far fewer "gifts" who is nevetheless a definite winner. Why? Why would a top salesman bungle the job of sales manager? Or the effective manager stumble when she goes into business for herself? Why are so many people suffering from job stress? Those are all good questions--and Kathy has answers for them. Better yet, she can show readers how to sidestep the pitfalls on their way to achievement and job satisfaction. And she can help parents understand why a child who can't wait to go to school in the primary grades comes home bored and/or frustrated in middle school. If you've ever been curious about any of these issues, read this book. It will change the way you look at yourself and the people around you.

Finding Your Right Livelihood

If I had found this book sooner, it would have helped stop me from many years of lamenting "I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up". And it would have saved me many years of stress while attempting to fit my round peg into too many square holes.The Conative Connection is based on a system to discover our action orientations which are our instinctual methods of 'acting' or performing tasks. The four basic 'action modes' are Fact Finder, Follow Thru, Implementor and Quick Start. There are three levels of performance for each Action Mode. People either insist on one or more of the modes, resist or accommodate.Facilitators are fairly equal in their use of all the action modes. Though some who seem to be this way have actually forced themselves for so long to fit and meet all expectations that they are 'in crises' and no longer recall what their less stressful original orientations were. It seemed to me that any job I had ever had expected everyone to be the same and to be facilitators, therefore creating a lot more stress and burnout than necessary.What I discovered about myself from reading this book confirmed some insights I had had in high school from which I had strayed. More than "What Color is Your Parachute", this book helped me to get more on track and find a job that was less stressful and more satisfying. The Conative Connection even surpasses the useful "know yourself" information I discovered in "Please Understand Me"(a wonderful book on the Myers/Briggs type and temperament personality test administered by some companies).As Marshall McLuhan said, "Education is a process of shutting off our talents". Now we have the tool to turn them back on.