Ever felt like a fish out of water in a standard corporate training session? Or maybe you sat through a lecture and felt like the professor was speaking a dead language, while your friend next to you was nodding along like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
That disconnect isn't just in your head. It’s exactly what David Kolb was trying to solve.
The learning style inventory by Kolb has been a staple in psychology and education circles for decades. But honestly, most people treat it like a personality quiz you find on social media. They take it once, get a label like "Diverger," and then never think about it again. That’s a massive waste. This isn't about pigeonholing yourself. It’s about understanding the "cycle" of how humans actually process reality.
The Theory Most People Skip
Before we get into the styles, we have to talk about the Experiential Learning Theory (ELT).
Kolb didn't just wake up and decide there are four types of people. He built on the work of giants like Jean Piaget, John Dewey, and Kurt Lewin. He argued that learning isn't just about memorizing facts. It’s a process where "knowledge is created through the transformation of experience."
It’s a circle. A loop.
Basically, you have an experience, you think about it, you come up with a theory about why it happened, and then you test that theory out. If you skip a step, the learning is shallow. You’ve probably met people who have "20 years of experience" but it’s really just one year of experience repeated 20 times because they never reflect. That’s a failure of the Kolb cycle.
Breaking Down the Four Stages
To understand the learning style inventory by Kolb, you have to see the four stages of the cycle first. Think of these as the ingredients, and the styles as the finished dishes.
🔗 Read more: God Willing and the Creek Don't Rise: The True Story Behind the Phrase Most People Get Wrong
- Concrete Experience (CE): This is the "doing" or "feeling" stage. You’re in the thick of it. You’re touching the controls, talking to the customer, or feeling the sting of a failed project.
- Reflective Observation (RO): This is the "watching" phase. You step back. You ask, "What actually happened there?" You aren't judging yet; you're just observing the gaps between what you expected and what occurred.
- Abstract Conceptualization (AC): Now you’re "thinking." You start building a model. You look for patterns. You read the manual or consult a theory to make sense of the observation.
- Active Experimentation (AE): The "planning" stage. You take your new theory and try it out in a new situation.
Most of us aren't equally good at all four. We have preferences. We have "home bases" where we feel most comfortable. That's where the inventory comes in.
The Four Styles: Which One Is Actually You?
The learning style inventory by Kolb plots you on two axes. One axis is how you "take in" information (Doing vs. Feeling). The other is how you "process" it (Watching vs. Thinking).
Where you land creates your style.
The Diverger (Feeling and Watching)
These folks are the "Why?" people. They are great at looking at a single situation from a dozen different angles. They tend to be imaginative and sensitive. If you’re a Diverger, you probably love brainstorming but hate being rushed to a conclusion. You want to see the "big picture" and understand the human element.
The Assimilator (Watching and Thinking)
Assimilators are the "What?" people. They care less about the people and more about the logic. If a theory isn't logically sound, they’re out. They are the ones who can take a mess of data and turn it into a cohesive, elegant model. They’d rather read a well-written manual than "wing it" any day of the week.
The Converger (Thinking and Doing)
These are the "How?" people. They want practical applications for ideas. Give them a technical problem and they are happy. They aren't big on "blue sky" brainstorming or social nuances; they want to find the single best solution to a specific problem and implement it.
The Accommodator (Doing and Feeling)
Accommodators are the "What if?" people. They are the "gut feeling" learners. If the plan doesn't work, they don't go back to the theory; they just change the plan on the fly. They are great in high-pressure, fast-changing environments. They learn by trial and error, often driving the Assimilators crazy in the process.
💡 You might also like: Kiko Japanese Restaurant Plantation: Why This Local Spot Still Wins the Sushi Game
Is This Even Scientific?
Let's be real for a second. The idea of "learning styles" has taken a beating in recent years.
Psychologists like Harold Pashler have pointed out that there’s very little evidence showing that teaching to a person’s "style" actually improves their grades. If you’re a "Visual Learner," looking at a picture of a map doesn't necessarily help you learn geography better than reading about it.
But here’s the nuance: Kolb’s inventory isn't a "fixed trait" like your height.
Even Kolb himself has been vocal about this. The learning style inventory by Kolb is about preferences, not abilities. It’s a snapshot of how you prefer to engage with the world right now. It changes based on your job, your stress levels, and your environment.
The value isn't in saying "I am a Diverger, so I can't do math." The value is in saying "I tend to skip the reflection phase, so I need to be more intentional about RO (Reflective Observation) so I don't keep making the same mistakes."
How to Use This at Work Without Being Weird
If you're a manager or a team lead, don't go around forcing everyone to take the test and then labeling their desks. That’s cringe.
Instead, use it to balance your projects.
📖 Related: Green Emerald Day Massage: Why Your Body Actually Needs This Specific Therapy
- During Brainstorming: Lean on your Divergers. They’ll see the risks and opportunities others miss.
- During Strategy: Let the Assimilators build the framework. They’ll ensure the logic holds up.
- During Execution: Get the Convergers to solve the technical bottlenecks.
- During the Pivot: Let the Accommodators take the lead when things go sideways.
If your team is all Assimilators, you’ll have a beautiful plan that never gets finished. If you’re all Accommodators, you’ll be busy as hell but running in circles. You need the full cycle to actually grow.
Practical Steps to Master Your Own Learning
If you’ve taken the learning style inventory by Kolb and found your result, don't just sit there. Use it to "stretch" your weaker quadrants.
If you’re a "Doer" (Accommodator/Converger): Force yourself to keep a journal. Spend 10 minutes at the end of every Friday writing down what went wrong and why. Don't just fix it; understand the root cause. This builds your RO and AC muscles.
If you’re a "Thinker" (Assimilator/Diverger): Set a "bias for action" timer. If you’ve been researching a project for more than three days, force yourself to launch a "minimum viable product" or a small test. Get into the CE and AE phases before you feel "ready." You’ll learn more from one failed test than from ten more books.
For Everyone:
Look at your last major mistake. Which part of the cycle did you skip?
- Did you act without a plan (Skipped AC)?
- Did you plan without ever looking at the real-world data (Skipped CE)?
- Did you fail to look back and see what happened (Skipped RO)?
Most of our professional "plateaus" happen because we get stuck in one half of the circle. We become "professional students" (Reflecting and Thinking) or "headless chickens" (Acting and Experiencing).
The goal of understanding the learning style inventory by Kolb isn't to find out who you are. It’s to find out who you aren't yet, so you can fill in the gaps.
Start by identifying your "blind spot" in the four-stage cycle. For the next week, consciously choose one task and approach it from that neglected perspective. If you usually dive straight in, spend 20 minutes sketching a logic model first. If you usually over-analyze, commit to making a decision within five minutes. The magic isn't in the label; it's in the movement through the cycle.