Your Opinion Matters

This was a post I wrote for my Organizational Behaviors course...

"People are usually more firmly convinced that their opinions are more precious than that they are true." George Santayana.

Humans are definitely an interesting breed. We all want to matter. I don't know of many people who would say I don't want to feel like I am needed, wanted, valued, or matter. We all are seeking validation to a certain degree.

We all have opinions and a variety of different topics. We often form our opinions based upon the influences around us. We might not always think for ourselves or research something but we will form our opinions based on how the people we trust feel on something. Personally I experienced this a few years ago. The city I live in had a huge push for "Measure Z" on the ballet. Measure Z was basically Measure Zoo. It was to increase the sales tax to improve the local zoo. There were these elephant cut out signs everywhere you looked and window clings on tons of cars. I didn't really research the props and cons of this measure but was told by my closest friends that I HAD to vote for this measure to protect the zoo for future generations. So, I didn't even form my own opinion, but just accepted the opinion of those I was close to. You see if anyone attacked my friends' opinion on Measure Z they would defend it like it was their first born child. They didn't care the results of increased sales tax whether that was a plus or a minus, they just cared that people understood how precious their opinion was.

Often in ministry we might not always have the best ideas or opinions. I work in youth ministry and I sometimes will have an opinion on something and I don't necessarily even care if I am right, but I just want someone to validate my opinion. I think all of our minds work like this. We don't want our opinions attacked, we just want to know that our opinions matter, that they are precious.

If Person A in and organization always put down Person B's opinions, made them feel like they didn't matter, or that their opinions were stupid it would hurt Person B. They would feel as if they were under personal attack. Eventually Person B would feel so worthless that they would no longer share their opinions or possibly eventually leave the organization for feeling a lack of worth. This could really effect the organization because Person B could have shared some great insight into things that will no longer be available. I think it is very important to work with the Person A types so that they see that it is okay to disagree with an opinion but sometimes it is more important to affirm how important it is for people like Person B to share their thoughts and to validate they are important...they are precious.