Making Decisions -- Should Every Opinion Count?

Everyone's entitled to his or her opinion -- it's part of the spice of life -- but in business, opinion-fests can lead to lost productivity, poor results and ill-will. It's a contentious and circular subject... not only does everyone have an opinion, but everyone has an opinion on opinions.

Some people are of "the more, the merrier" mentality, (understandably) thinking that the best results come from including as much input as possible. Some feel that not acting on subjective commentary is tantamount to ignoring customers or colleagues. Others feel that opinion-gathering can go too far, leading to a need for consensus, which they equate with the old saw that "a camel is a horse designed by committee."

But no matter where you fall on this philosophical spectrum, opinions in business need to be managed. Well, at least that's the way I feel.

All businesses and industries have to deal with this at some level. Even the most scientific and empirical of endeavors can have too many cooks in the kitchen. There's not much to debate when it comes to what geometric shape a tire should be, but I imagine there is plenty to chime in on when it comes to tread patterns, rubber compounds, sidewall lettering and hubcaps. Still, by definition, the more objectively something can be demonstrated, tested and proven, the easier it is to settle matters of opinion. The tire tested to have the best traction has the best traction.

Businesses like mine, where virtually everything is subjective, can be a free-for-all. When you make bags, once you get past the basic requirement -- holding stuff -- almost everything else is entirely in the eye of the beholder. Same for clothing, home furnishings, packaging, Web design and so much more. You can discuss matters of design or taste endlessly and you'll never please everyone. In fact, many would argue that if you do please everyone, the design probably isn't that great. I don't like Dyson vacuum cleaners at all... lucky they didn't ask my opinion.

We're very fortunate in that our design group tends to play very well together. Of course we pay close attention to what's going on in our industry, but we don't get bogged down. Everyone gets a shot at trying his or her own ideas if they feel strongly about them, and we don't punish failure. Our most successful products have come from smaller groups, fewer opinions, and a good dose of educated gut. Perhaps it's a benefit of being small, perhaps luck, perhaps both.

Within a company, obsessing too much on opinions can lead to resentment, internal dysfunction and even sabotage by bruised egos: Sam in sales wanted it to be blue, Mary in marketing wanted it to be red. Sam "won," and now Mary's not quite as motivated to help Sam sell. As a result, Sam's sales suffer and Mary tells everyone "I told you it should have been red." This no-win scenario plays out every day in many businesses.

In an effort to avoid this, many companies let the discussion and debate go on too long, desperately hoping for "buy-in." No one wants to draw the line (and no one can even agree on what color the line should be). Paralysis of analysis ensues, products take too long to develop, or never get developed at all, or go to market as mediocre compromises.

You can try to narrow the opinion gap by using focus groups, surveys, and other marketing tools, but doing these things on a statistically significant scale is beyond the reach and resources of many businesses. And even when they are done at the highest possible level, opinions vary on their value. There are legendary crash-and-burn failures born of big-time market research.

Probably the most famous (or infamous) opinion on the matter belongs to Apple's Steve Jobs. Jobs believes customer and employee input has its place, but he puts relatively minimal weight on it, and he gets the first and last word. Jobs believes that people can't know what they want because they don't know what they haven't seen. In other words, most opinions can only be based on past experience and existing knowledge. Imagine what the first iPod would have looked like if it had been designed "democratically." Other than a few ups and downs, opinion management has worked out pretty well for Steve and his company.

Granted, Steve Jobs is a unique animal, and his brand of dictatorial management, benevolent or otherwise, is not in vogue. Very few people see the world (and the future) the way he does, and few can get away with his management style in this day and age. But still, at some point, talk has to turn to action.

So, how do you and your company deal with this? What approach do you think is most effective? All opinions welcome.

(Flickr photo by alexindigo)