RCA TRAINING
Root Cause Analysis training by Sologic provides the tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to solve complex problems in any sector, within any discipline, and of any scale.Learn More
SOFTWARE
Sologic’s Causelink has the right software product for you and your organization. Single users may choose to install the software locally or utilize the cloud. Our flagship Enterprise-scale software is delivered On Premise or as SaaS in the cloud.Learn More
The obvious answer might be nothing. But Root Cause Analysis does have plenty to do with managing the influence of the Highest Paid Person in the Office (or Highest Paid Person’s Opinion), better known as The HiPPO Effect.
The HiPPO Effect describes the excessive power that is often wielded by the most senior person in a meeting, particularly when there is a partial or complete lack of data to work with. Although the effect is often unintentional, and well-meaning, in many workplace environments the HiPPO Effect substantially reduces or completely shuts down vital contributions from other team members. In other words, it reduces the flow of decision-making data and can also constrict the vital feedback loop.
Occupational psychologists will tell us that the HiPPO Effect is the workplace expression of something known in psychological terms as ‘Authority Bias’. The result is that behaviour or decisions that would normally be challenged, pass through an organisation without being scrutinised or formally assessed. A Dutch study from the University of Rotterdam, in December 2016, made headlines when it revealed that projects led by senior managers failed more often than those led by junior managers. The reason isn’t that the ideas from the senior managers were weak, or that their management skills were short of excellent.
What the study suggested is that junior managers received honest and regular feedback from their peers, while senior managers typically received little or no critical feedback – particularly during those periods or projects when relevant data was absent or in very short supply.
With this in mind, it isn’t difficult to imagine something of a self-perpetuating cycle forming. If a HiPPO is confident of their expertise and their decisions are accepted at face value, confidence grows and decisions flow with reducing amounts of analysis and evidence.
Organisations with a robust Root Cause Analysis process will embed a method that is evidence-based at its very core. The Sologic 5-Step process starts with gathering evidence and deliberately returns to this evidence throughout each step. In time, these organisations will also create an RCA culture where they ‘instinctively’ become uncomfortable with making decisions, accepting proposals or applying solutions that lack the reliable data necessary to back them up. That evidence can, and will, take many forms but both its existence, and (crucially) the search to obtain it, provide considerable barriers to the HiPPO Effect. Simultaneously this approach helps to demonstrate to teams that all voices can be heard, conflicts of interest can be avoided, and hidden agendas will often be revealed.
All businesses, no matter their size or their type rely on accurate, evidence-base data to grow and plan for the future. Don’t let a HiPPO obscure your view.
If you want to know more about how our Root Cause Analysis and Tactical Problem Solving methodology could help your organisation solve problems, reduce risk and improve performance please contact us.
RCA TRAINING
Root Cause Analysis training by Sologic provides the tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to solve complex problems in any sector, within any discipline, and of any scale.Learn More
SOFTWARE
Sologic’s Causelink has the right software product for you and your organization. Single users may choose to install the software locally or utilize the cloud. Our flagship Enterprise-scale software is delivered On Premise or as SaaS in the cloud.Learn More