Since my post last week about ideas and opinions, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the differences between them.

Here’s a short list of what I feel are important differences:

Don’t get me wrong. Opinions aren’t always bad. In fact, they’re usually necessary. What we have to realize though, is opinions are steps back. Sometimes we need to step back from an idea, but common sense tells us we have to move forward again if we want progress. So, if an opinion causes you or your team to step back from an idea then ask yourself, “What can we do to move forward again?” And you’ll probably come up with a great idea.