Comments on: 5 Ways to Influence a HIPPO

By: Kareem

Kareem — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:01:12 +0000

John,

Your assumption could be valid if organizations are objective and a HIPPO always listens to what’s being said before being biased by who’s saying. Yet, this highly depends on organizational culture as well as people profiles.

Cheers.

By: John

John — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:40:29 +0000

I suspect that too many of your examples are negative in tone. My experience is that you achieve more success with positive statements, eg talking about additional revenue.

By: MAG

MAG — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:31:48 +0000

Kareem, you can’t tell that somebody is wrong , it is just an opinion, other thing, HIPPOs are not one type, some with strong wellness and knowledge and others are not, some are self-guided and others needs help, on the other hand, yes, you must use the “winning techniques” to reach your goal even if you do work in “Utopia”.

By: Kareem

Kareem — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:50:35 +0000

@MAG, it is not about being a successful PM or not, project managers, and ideally everyone, should know how to influence not only HIPPO but each and every stakeholder, moreover how to adapt, if you always think you will work in Utopia than you are absolutely wrong, real life as we all know is different, and we all need to employ some techniques to win, without battling or trying to get anyone else down!

By: MAG

MAG — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:39:38 +0000

Kareem, I guess you have a very pessimistic view of HIPPOs, I know that you are focusing on How to deal with them in order to win, but, it doesn’t mean that it’s kind of strategic battle , come on, autocratic is something you can find everywhere, and I agree with Pawel, if you are a successful PM, you should not work in such an environment, and I prefer if you did introduce the win-win strategy, even you did imply it in different parts of your article, though, I find your article helpful for people with less experience or needs help.

Thanks,

By: Ahmed A. Korany

Ahmed A. Korany — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:15:24 +0000

I think HIPPOS is found everywhere in PM life, every stakeholder in every project is a HIPPO of certain size.
Every size of HIPPOS has different approaches to deal with.
And depending on the organizational structure [Functional , Projectized or Matrix] the HIPPO number may increase and have a complicated procedures to deal with.

By: Kareem

Kareem — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:59:35 +0000

Hi Pawel,

Yes I believe your so lucky to work in this kind of organizations, however I believe it is not only to deal with HIPPO, it is also to deal with key influencers who will always exist in your project, ideally you should keep a secret of those, I also think that the PM should always be strategic regardless of the organizational culture..!

By: Pawel Brodzinski

Pawel Brodzinski — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:23:21 +0000

I’m lucky enough I worked in a few organizations where you didn’t really need a special approach to HIPPO. It was enough to just put your arguments on the table.

But yes, whenever it happens you have to face typical HIPPO these tricks should work. They basically come to a single point: make them believe your project is a strategic one. That should help.

Of course the different question is whether you want to work in environment where these all are prerequisites to make your project survive. Personally I prefer to to look for a place where you don’t need to manage your HIPPO.