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Opinions and preferences

If there’s one thing that my family and friends can rely on me for, it’s an opinion.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines an opinion as:

A view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

But is everything that we have a view on actually opinions? Are some things mere preferences?

The OED defines a preference as:

A greater liking for one alternative over another or others.

Recently, I’ve been doing some introspection about my preferences. This is, in part, due to the work that I’m doing while on loan to Outlandish from my home co-op.

Diagram showing 'preference' circle inside larger 'range of tolerance' circle

Outlandish use Sociocracy to make decisions, and the above diagram was part of my induction.

Sociocracy, also called dynamic governance, is a system of governance which seeks to create harmonious social environments and productive organizations. It is distinguished by the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in decision-making, and of discussion by people who know each other.

Wikipedia

What I like about Sociocracy is that it gives everyone a voice through the use of ’rounds’, recognises that emotion is an important part of decision-making, and (crucially) tackles preferences head-on.

This was particularly useful to me recently with some decisions we had to make about the colour scheme part of We Are Open’s rebrand. I realised that, while I’ll happily express an opinion on anything, these are usually based on mere preferences.

This realisation was more liberating than I expected it to be. As a result, I’ve resolved to check whether I’m expressing an opinion or simply a preference when interacting with others. I have a feeling that, most of the time, it will be the latter.


This post is Day 19 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com

Feedback: why you read this blog.

A week ago I asked for some feedback, some reasons why you read this blog. The results were very interesting and the comments kind. 🙂

Feedback from blog survey

Some highlights from the Other category were ‘because I’m scared not to’, ‘satisfy idle curiosity’, ‘steal ideas’, and even ‘to snigger at your self-indulgent posts and share them with others’! :-p

Many people left wonderful feedback – thanks very much for that. I’m not going to share it all here, but this in particular made me smile:

“Are some edu bloggers more interested in exposure than impact?”
Its interesting that you comment on this because it is the exact reason why I like your blog so much, the fact that you want to help comes across very clearly in most of what you write and infact inspired me to start a blog, again more for myself but definitely not for recognition. I absolutely loved the piece on ‘cc’ and your attitude towards sharing good practice. Put quite simply www.dougbelshaw.com/blog is a place to read about good practice and it has definitely helped me.

This person (it was all anonymous so I don’t know who wrote this) has hit the nail on the head. I blog not only for myself as a creative outlet, but to:

  • Help and inspire others
  • Get people thinking
  • Share good practice

Thanks for all your comments in 2009 and I look forward to continuing the conversation in 2010! 😀

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