317 Week 5 Discussion

Narrator: In today's, it's your choice episode called “Size it up” Nicole and Roger continue to discuss framing a decision. Part of framing a decision is recognizing the scope, how large or small the decision really is. Sometimes the decision is much larger than it seems at first glance. Sometimes it is much smaller. Roger and Nicole will introduce you to a useful method for determining the importance and size of a decision called the hip check. Nicole: Hey Roger, you look a little stressed out. What's on your mind? Roger: I can't decide what to wear to my band's concert tomorrow night.

Nicole: That stressing you out. Is that such a big deal?

Roger: Don't you think it's a big deal?

Nicole: Not really, but that's not the point.

Roger: Well, clearly one of us is more stylish than the other.

Nicole: It's just that not all decisions are worth stressing about. Some are bigger than others. Roger: Well, of course, but sometimes it's hard to know which ones are more important than others. Nicole: That's so true. One of the ways I try to figure this out is to imagine the different possible outcomes of a decision. Roger: Aww man. I know all about what happens when you don't do that. One time last semester, my roommate and I spotted a sofa by the side of the road with a “free” sign on it, so we threw it in my buddy's truck and brought it back to our dorm room. Nicole: You if they say one man's trash is another man's treasure, Roger: Except it ended up being the furthest thing from a treasure.

Nicole: What do you mean?

Roger: We didn't realize it at the time, but the sofa was disgusting. It stunk up my dorm room for a weeks. Nicole: Ugh,No wonder the owner was trying to get rid of it.

Roger: You're telling me I learned my lesson the hard way that time. I should have thought more about what the possible outcomes of taking the sofa home could be and the consequences were way smellier than I imagined. Nicole: Sounds like you really messed up that time, Roger, but I've got a great tip for you to use in the future. Roger: A tip. Is it about what to wear tomorrow night? Nicole: No, but it might help you become better at recognizing the importance of a decision based on its possible outcomes. I learned this from my cohost from last year. She taught me about hip. If you need to figure out what a decision may mean for you, just run through HIP- H, how will things change? I-impact on just me or others too ,P-permanent or reversible. Roger: So the tip is HIP. So how does it work? Nicole: Let's start with two pretty different examples. The first scenario , your boss has given you the responsibility of hiring an assistant and you're unemployed best friend is begging you to hire him instead of interviewing for the best candidate. What do you do? The second scenario takes place on any given day. What do you wear to school ? H-The first letter in HIP- stands for how will things change? In other words, how will making a certain decision change my future and the opportunities I'll face. To see how to use H think about the two examples I just described. Roger; Well, how would things change if I hired my best friend for the job? He could end up being a really lousy employee, which will reflect poorly on me and my boss would think less of me . Or he could be a great employee and my boss would highly regard my judgment. Or my boss could find out that I picked him just because they're best friends, which would make me look really bad.

Nicole: And what about what you wear to school?

Roger: Let's see. I want to look cool and impress all the ladies. So I'd wear something impressive.

Nicole: What if you wear suspenders and a bow tie?

Roger: Hmm..

Nicole: The possible outcomes of hiring your best friend outweigh social embarrassment. Considering how things will change, helps put into perspective the size of the decision you're making. I -stands for impact and the need to ask yourself whether your decision impacts just you or others too.

Roger: So like what if I hire my best friend and he's dealing with customers all day. They can be affected by his performance, good or bad, and I could also impact the company as a whole.

Nicole: That's why the decision is so important because the potential outcome could impact the entire company and its customers, not just you. Roger: But with the what to wear example, I'm the only one who looks like a Dork. Nicole: Exactly, and remember, even with decisions that have positive impacts, the more people potentially affected, the greater the significance of the decision. P is for permanent or reversible. Roger: Oh, so like if my friend ends up being the worst employee ever, my boss may never trust my judgment again, and if I don't hire him, he’ll definitely be mad at me and I may end up losing him as a friend. Nicole: And what about the outfit decision? Roger: Well, if I look like a loser at school for one day, I can just make it up by looking wicked cool the next Nicole: Right, some decisions we can never take back and their impact never goes away. So those decisions could potentially have even bigger outcome than significance. Roger: That all makes sense, but how do I use the information I discovered using HIP to help rate the significance of each decision? Nicole: on the screen, you should see two scales to assess the importance of each decision. The scales range from smaller decision to bigger decision. Let's figure out where we should put our rating on each scale based on the HIP formula we just learned. Roger: I think I'm up to it. Nicole: When deciding whether or not to hire your best friend. You thought about how the decision could change your life, the impact that it would have on people other than yourself and the potential to lead to permanent outcomes. Roger: Hmm. Using those three criteria, it seems like a fairly important decision. Nicole: I would definitely agree with you.

Roger: and you were right. There's no reason to sweat about what clothes to wear tomorrow. I can't imagine how anything big will change in my life as a result of looking like Urkel. I'm really the only person who's impacted and the decision is definitely not permanent since I can just wear my really cool outfit the next day. Nicole: Right. So what you're telling me is that by using HIP, it became clear that the outcomes of this decision are pretty small, making this a less important decision than you originally thought. Roger: Yup. Definitely not a biggie, but wait- what if what I think is a big decision is just a small decision in somebody else's eyes, like the decision whether or not to buy a new computer. Nicole: Explain. Roger: Suppose Bill Gates and I were both deciding to buy new computers and we each use the HIP method. I'm pretty sure we would come to different conclusions about the importance of the outcome. For good ole Bill buying a new computer would have a minimal change on his life. The cost to him is insignificant. For me, however, I would have to cough up my life savings. Clearly, buying a new computer would lead to very different outcomes. For the two of us. Nicole: You're totally right, Roger. People have different ways of viewing the same decision. This is called “subjectivity”. The idea that people have different interpretations of the same event, so I may think what you wear to the concert is no big deal, but you may think differently. Narrator: See if you can apply HIP to the following decision. You're deciding whether or not to get a huge tattoo of a snake on your arm. Use the HIP checklist to consider the possible outcomes. Remember, they can be positive or negative outcomes. Then indicate how important this decision is to you. Nicole: Here's some things we came up with using the HIP checklist. H- I could get a nasty infection. I might not be able to get that customer service job I applied for. I can finally join that biker gang. Roger: I.-I will be the only one impacted by the tattoo. Though my family might have certain emotional responses as well. Nicole: P -A tattoo is essentially permanent and I'll most likely have it forever. I can reverse it by getting it removed, but that's a painful and annoying process and pretty expensive.

Narrator: Today on the show, we learned about a very helpful method for determining the size of the decision. We call this method HIP- H is for how will things change, I-for impact on just me or others too; P is for permanent or reversible. Roger: Your HIP tip is pretty cool. I always knew some decisions were bigger than others, but I never really thought about how to really determine the difference. If I stay HIP when thinking about a decision, then I'll have no problem. Right?

Nicole: Roger that!

Roger: That's not funny! Thanks for watching everyone and tune in next time to. It's your choice.