cover image Pure Instinct:: Business' Untapped Resource

Pure Instinct:: Business' Untapped Resource

Kathy Kolbe. Crown Publishers, $25 (347pp) ISBN 978-0-8129-2069-7

Kolbe ( The Conative Connection ) has written a study that enriches and enhances our knowledge of a little understood but important managerial tool: instinct. Although instinct is eschewed by academics because it evades quantification and analysis, Kolbe maintains that ``our best decisions and greatest sense of accomplishment come when we act on instinct.'' She crafts a matrix showing four types of instinct (probing, patterning, innovating and demonstrating) with the Kolbe Conative Index's (the ``KCI'') four ``action modes'': fact finder, follow through, quick start and implementor. Her theories and case studies on leadership, innovation, team building, customer service and training are persuasive, if weighted down by jargon. Kolbe's findings should appeal to human resources managers. (Nov.)