A Conative Moment

If you’re anything like me (before some Atlanta training days), you’re probably not familiar with the terms, “conative or Kolbe”.

While down South, I learned about the three parts of the mind: the cognitive, affective, and “conative.” Cognitive deals with intelligence, affective with emotions, and conative is about how we act on our thoughts and feelings. Everyone in our office has “Kolbe A” profile. The Kolbe A is a 40-question survey that measures our conative selves; the profile provides a window into how we instinctively do things. It’s not as scary as it sounds.

So, in my dental practice, everyone (more or less) fits the same profile. The Kolbe A designates four instinctive types: Fact Finder, Follow Through, Quick Start, and Implementor. My team likes to take time and review the details before making choices (mostly based on past experiences); they are big-time Fact Finders. My co-workers are major Follow Throughs; they thrive on systems, structure, and repetition; they do not like improvisation or rapid-fire decision making (they sometimes openly sneer on hearing the words, Quick and Start.) At about 3-to-1, the Implementor crew prefers physically restoring to imagining.

To the frequent chagrin of my team, I’m the Kolbe outlier. I like bullet points; love to improvise, look to the future while making decisions yesterday and conceptualizing stuff like a one-man think tank wearing loops…probably like about 5% of the DDS-types in North America. And I wonder why dental school seemed like 4-years of eating raw kale and watching Friends repeats with Michael Bolton screeching away in the background. But I digress.

Knowing the conative stuff really helps build understanding and relationships within our practice and with loved ones; but that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed every time a new co-worker joins the crew and winds up looking askance at Quick Starts like me.

And during our practice expansion, converting a 1100-square foot ‘70s museum into a mirror image of the now hi-tech space we’ve called home since Magic Johnson’s college days, I’ve become increasingly convinced I totally blew it. Why not profile the vendors? Why not see if some of ‘em even have all three brainy components? Why not implement a Kolbe lie-detector or a conative “Follow-Through” Pass or Fail test designed with taser feedback technology?

I’d like to think my contractor is maybe my Kolbe twin brother from another mother…and father; because he’s freakin’ awesome. And true, he’s very structured, doesn’t like surprises, and measures way more than twice before cutting once while focusing on one thing at a time. And despite my conflicted Kolbe A, I’m like a Jason from Precise Maintenance (that’s a plug) clone…because I’m surrounded by Jason-type co-workers every day.

But sadly, sometimes highly skilled well-meaning complimentary Kolbe teammates can’t perform miracles. And enough said about my hapless equipment guy. Equipment guy once shared “we might have this done by Thanksgiving”; I think he meant November 2017.

The wiring guy’s phone system had to be replaced a few days after it was installed; he called the system perfect, then blamed its failure on my Financial Coordinator before offering to take the system back and reimbursing me with less than half his fee. Wonder what Trump’s Kolbe is?

But I’m not a victim and my apologies all around. It’s on me; I need to walk the land or at least the property and spread Kolbe A around kind of like Johnny Appleseed. Who knows, maybe there’s another Quick Start dentist out there who could use a helping hand. If so, my Team is available weekends for Kolbe interventions.