Combi Model: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Combi Model, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
About 2 minutes
Try it here: list two ideas to combine
Strong ideas often come from joining two things that did not meet before. List a few pairs you could merge.
Which two things could you combine to make something new?
Practices that may help
- Combine and build on others’ ideas
Treat every idea as a building block — the best ideas in a session are usually hybrids.
Osborn’s Brainstorming Rules, Made Practical - Combinatorial Creativity, Made Practical
Arthur Koestler’s bisociation theory holds that creative breakthroughs emerge when two previously unconnected frames of reference collide and suddenly fit — not from blank-slate invention but from unexpected combination. The practical implication is that creative output depends heavily on the breadth and diversity of your input: you can only combine what you have already absorbed. - Combine
Ask: what two things — purposes, materials, functions, or ideas — could be merged to create something new?
SCAMPER: A Systematic Creativity Technique - The COM-B Model and Behavior Change Wheel
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever. - Build a "collector’s mind" — capture everything interesting, then look for connections
Keep an active idea collection so you can search it for unexpected pairings when you need them.
Combinatorial Creativity, Made Practical - Filter the matrix with cross-consistency assessment
Identify which value combinations are impossible or contradictory to reduce the space to viable solutions.
Morphological Analysis, Made Practical - Build a deliberately broad input diet
Expose yourself to domains far outside your expertise to stock the combinatorial engine.
Combinatorial Creativity, Made Practical - Strengthen automatic motivation through cue-response pairings
Build automatic, habitual pulls toward the behavior so it does not compete for conscious motivation each time.
The COM-B Model and Behavior Change Wheel - Match your intervention type to the COM-B gap
Use the Behavior Change Wheel to select the intervention approach that fits the diagnosed gap — not your default.
The COM-B Model and Behavior Change Wheel - Apply several models to the same problem at once
When models from different fields point to the same answer, confidence rises; when they conflict, you learn something important.
Mental Models: Charlie Munger’s Latticework Approach
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I treat every idea on my list as its own separate thing, judging each one solo, and it never occurs to me to mash two of them together
- I have two separate things that each work fine on their own, and I keep sensing that the real idea is in mashing them into one
- Fascinating little ideas and connections hit me all the time, but I never write any of them down, so when I’m finally staring at a problem that one of them would’ve cracked, it’s long gone and I can’t pull it back.
- I’ve laid out thousands of possible combinations and now I’m drowning in them
- I keep coming up dry on new ideas, and I’ve realized I only ever read and follow stuff inside my own field
Related concerns
- Com B Components
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever.
- Combinatorial Creativity At Work
Arthur Koestler’s bisociation theory holds that creative breakthroughs emerge when two previously unconnected frames of reference collide and suddenly fit — not from blank-slate invention but from unexpected combination. The practical implication is that creative output depends heavily on the breadth and diversity of your input: you can only combine what you have already absorbed.
- Idea Combination
Treat every idea as a building block — the best ideas in a session are usually hybrids.
Combine and build on others’ ideas
- The Comb Model
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever.
- Unlikely Combinations
Identify which value combinations are impossible or contradictory to reduce the space to viable solutions.
Filter the matrix with cross-consistency assessment
- What Is The Comb Model
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.