Fact or Opinion?

When people speak with any level of passion or conviction, they speak as if what they’re saying is a fact. In reality, what they’re saying is their opinion. When you state an opinion as a fact, your audience then believes it to be a fact and reacts in a certain way.If, during conversations, you delineate between fact and opinion it will help the conversation move forward to find real solutions. Imagine you’re asking for advice and the person interprets what you’ve said as the facts of the situation (instead of your opinion). The advice they give you might not have merit and might make the real situation worse.Some good examples of opinion as fact can be found by listening to talk radio or news shows that have political analysis.Along the same thread, think about everything you do at work and challenging the assumption that what is being said or presented to you is actually fact.Now, you can’t do this with absolutely everything that comes across your desk or in every conversation. But you certainly can do it on the serious or deep issues. That’s where you’ll want to dig deeper—look at every angle to really get to the root causes.When you get there, you’ll realize a significant improvement in business. Fact or opinion… you decide.