Part 3 of HiPPO Hunting Guide
Dealing with a HiPPO
After you know for certain a person is a HiPPO you need to start taking action. The third and final part of the HiPPO Hunting Guide is centered around:
Practical ways of dealing with HiPPOs.
Running away or ignoring a HiPPO is the worst thing you can do for yourself, your colleagues and the company you work for. At the end of the day, whether you like it or not, the HiPPO will take the decisions — meaning that it’s your job to have the decision rooted in facts and not opinions.
Here are 3 way of dealing with a HiPPO:
- Keep the HiPPO in the loop
Nobody likes surprises so why should HiPPOs be any different. Best thing you can do when you know one of your project’s stakeholders is a HiPPO is to always keep them in the loop throughout development — don’t just show up after 3 years of work with a 100 slides PPT expecting the HiPPO to agree to everything.
In The Corporate Startup we propose this model for managing stakeholders.
- Arm yourself with numbers and facts
If a conversation gravitates around opinions you don’t stand a chance of winning against a HiPPO.
Remember: always come prepared! Think about all the questions and issues that might come up in that conversation and gather your data so that when a senior manager questions anything you can back up your decision with cold hard data.
Note that some HiPPOs are harder to deal with than other. For the ones that suffer from ‘confirmation bias’ one single set of data will never be enough. Bring more data sets that prove your conclusion if you want to win an argument.
- Take the initiative
This is probably the most important advice. HiPPOs usually start shooting out opinions when things are not happening or when they are asked to weigh-in. Best thing to do, so you don’t have to deal with a HiPPO, is to take the initiative and provide leadership for the people you work with.
Would love to know how you’ve dealt with HiPPOs so far, as the 3 suggestions above are drawn from my personal experience.
HiPPO Hunting Guide — Conclusions
No decision should be taken as a result of someone’s opinion. The people we call HiPPOs were hired for a reason, and their vision, expertise and managerial acumen should not be dismissed.
But one of the best decisions a HiPPO can make is to acknowledge that data-driven/evidence-based decision making is superior to opinions. And that organizations that ground everything in evidence, can become more predictive, innovative, and efficient than ever before.
