Secrets of the Phoenix Suns’ Psychologist : THE CONATIVE CONNECTION Uncovering the Link Between Who You Are and How You Perform <i> by Kathy Kolby (Addison-Wesley: $16.95; 240 pp.) </i>

When a writer claims to have discovered “nothing less than a new common denominator in our understanding of human nature,” it does tend to put a reader on guard.

When that writer claims to have identified instinctive modes of performance that “mystified” Maslow, Spinoza, Kant and a multitude of philosophers who set the question aside as “too obscure to pursue,” all but the most gullible among us will suspect that she is in the process of constructing her own gallows.

Nonetheless, Kathy Kolby may deserve a pardon for arrogance and hyperbole in consideration of the value she does deliver: a concept regarding human performance that has practical applications in business, personal development and parenting.

Consider the three attributes of the human mind: the cognitive (what we think), the affective (what we feel) and the conative (what we do). “The Conative Connection” is concerned with what we do and how we do it. Kolby identifies four modes of action, which each of us uses in varying degrees and for which we have distinct preferences.

If you are fascinated with research and tend to avoid taking action until you have accumulated extensive information, you’re strong in Fact Finder tendencies. If you rely more on your instincts, are innovative and risk-taking, spontaneous and inventive, you’re strong in Quick Start . Structure appeals to Follow Through people who are careful planners, comfortable with budgets, systems and routine. If you like to work with your hands, or you’re an agriculturist or an athlete, you’re a strong Implementor .

Kolby states that, although everyone uses all modes, each of us is strong in some, resistant in others, and she has devised a way of measuring the distribution and intensity of each. Believing that these preferences, which determine your modus operandi, are genetic and never change throughout your life, she has devised the Kolby Conative Index (KCI) to show how you can evaluate your performance and plan your life according to your innate performance choices. One can overcompensate and improve performance in any mode, but the innate preference will remain constant.

Using her method, officials of the Phoenix Suns basketball team make decisions about draft choices; Fortune 500 companies use it for building synergistic teams, isolating the conative strengths of people on their organizational charts, and teaching communication skills. Parents use the KCI to better understand their children’s behavioral patterns so they can encourage them in areas where they are most likely to be successful, and perhaps be more understanding when the children are frustrated by tasks that involve their less-dominant modes.

Most of us can recall a situation in which we felt frantic because of the demands of some specific task. When we’re placed in circumstances that force us to function for extensive periods of time in a mode in which we are resistant, we suffer mightily for having to work against our instinctive drives.

At the end of the book is a simple KCI pencil-and-paper test that provides a way of assessing your performance preferences. Unfortunately, the author claims that most people are unable to predict accurately their own results, and only her trained professionals are capable of interpreting the findings.

My hunch is that enthusiastic Fact Finders who can afford it will send a check to Kolby Concepts for the $49.95 she charges to evaluate the test; Quick Starts may be more inclined to trust their own instincts and decide for themselves how to interpret the results.

The Conative Connection is fascinating on one hand and frustrating on another: By failing to integrate the conative functions with the cognitive and affective, the book appears simplistic; whether she’s right or wrong about these modes being constant throughout life, she’s touching a sore spot with those who believe that, through education and effort, we can change almost anything except our height.

Some readers will resent the “pigeonholing” that could give employers an unfair advantage in screening a person’s potential for success. But even if you don’t accept all of her conclusions, Kolby provides a catalyst that can help you evaluate what you are doing, how you are doing it, and whether you should be doing it at all.