Why Making Employees Work The Same Way Backfires

Why Making Employees Work The Same Way Backfires

June 16, 2026 · 35 min

About this episode

David Kolbe discusses the importance of conation in understanding employee performance and burnout.

David Kolbe argues that most organizations are only measuring two-thirds of what drives performance. We assess what people know (skills) and how they tend to behave (personality), but often ignore how they instinctively take action. That missing piece—what Kolbe calls conation—shapes how people gather information, solve problems, make decisions, and navigate uncertainty. In this conversation, David Rice and David Kolbe explore why burnout is often a mismatch problem rather than a motivation p...

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Host: David Rice

Guest: David Kolbe

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