Simply put, conation drives action. Actions drive performance. To understand how you and others achieve peak performance, you need to understand the conative part of the mind. While philosophers through the centuries discussed the existence of conation, Kathy Kolbe was the first to identify its key attributes and how to measure them.
Kolbe’s four Action Modes® are the modern breakthrough in understanding and explaining conation. Kathy Kolbe’s key insight was that everyone has a strength in how they operate in each of these Action Modes. Each person’s method of operation, or “MO,” is their strength in that area.
These are the Four Action Modes:
- Fact Finder
- Follow Thru
- Quick Start
- Implementor

