Do You Have A Highest Paid Person’s Opinion?

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The first time I heard the term?HIPPO?in Adam Grant’s book,?Think Again, I thought about the part of the brain Hippocampus. I also thought about hippo, the mammal.

The term HIPPO is quite different from these two things though.?HIPPO stands for HIghest Paid Person’s Opinion.?It was the first time I heard about that term but it definitely wasn’t the first time I experienced it.?So what is this HIPPO all about, you say?

This term describes the power dynamics in a meeting, conversation or presentation. A lot of people conform to the HIPPO and a lot of people assert their own HIPPO, suppressing the opinions of others who do not have as much power as they have in the conversation.

It is a?problematic behaviour?for people who are trying to present something important to them or to their organization but they feel like they do not have a voice because the conversation has turned into a political match.

It’s something that should be avoided like the plague.?It hurts all of us, but especially newcomers, introverts, women, and minorities.

If you are in a position of power?and you find yourself thinking that you have the best ideas and opinions and you’d like to use your political power during the presentation to get people to agree with you because of that, you are doing more harm than good to the organization than you think.

Why Is The HIPPO Bad In Presentations?

1???Kills Curiosity?— When people settle for the opinion of the person with the highest pay grade, they stop questioning it and challenging it. They become too comfortable with what is presented in front of them. It robs them of any chances to learn from other people and accept that they do not, in fact, know everything. There are always holes in our knowledge about anything we’ve learned.

2???Kills Diversity?— HIPPO impacts minorities the most, because it tends to discourage people from speaking up and voicing their concerns. It is sometimes shameful to speak up in front of superiors. It’s quite embarrassing to challenge them and it might have dire consequences. Lack of diversity increases the chances of GroupThink. And while it’s useful for survival, I am not so sure it’s useful for creativity.

3???Kills Creativity?— To find better ways to look at problems, you’ll have to ask different questions. You know that one idiot in the meeting who asks a trivial question but everyone goes, “Oh! How did we never think about that?”. People get pigeonholed when they stop asking questions. When it is only the opinion of the HIPPO that matters, then it is only their experience, views and feelings that matter.

My 0.02:?This edition isn’t meant for people who are presenting.?An effective conversation takes both sides into consideration.?Hence, this newsletter is for people who are on the receiving end. If you are listening to a presentation and you think you are a HIPPO, remember to check your bias that drives you to direct the conversation in a certain way that benefits you or in line with your beliefs.?It is hurting you more than you think because?it is not opening your mind to all the possible learning that you can have.

“It’s common for people who lack power or status to shift into politician mode, suppressing their dissenting views in favour of conforming to the HIPPO—The HIghest Paid Person’s Opinion. Sometimes they have no other choice if they want to survive.” — Adam Grant, Think Again

Lots of love,

Heba Abusedou

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