Everybody has one.

Value and ubiquity have always been inversely related. The less common something is, the more valuable it is, and vice versa.

This idea was long ago immortalized by some wag who said that opinions are like...well, you know.

And yet, anyone who has ever spent any time in a conference room knows that in the business world, opinions are often the currency with which one attempts to justify his or her position/importance/pay grade.

Who hasn't watched a corporate game of tit-for-tat as eager acolytes attempt to one-up each other in front of the boss? All of them expressing their opinions, all of them of equal value, which is to say, of no value.

The simple truth is, opinions just don't matter. Opinions are arguments, not facts. Opinions are intended to sway, not illuminate. They're too easy to form, too easy to express and too common to have value.

Unfortunately, in the world of advertising -- a world of ideas -- opinions aren't merely worthless. They can be downright destructive. This is what advertising creatives generally hate about focus group research. Sally's opinion about the photo + Jack's opinion about the third word in the headline + Rob's opinion about the type...before too long, the idea that was on the table is effectively dead, killed in a swarm of opinions.

And the only thing worse than a dead idea is an idea that has been so watered down by opinions that nobody even pays attention to it anymore.

But the problem may not be the opinion itself. The problem may be the question that invites someone to express the opinion. "What do you think of this idea?" is a broad, general question, and in response, you can expect broad, general opinions: "I don't like." "It doesn't hit me."

Instead, try asking "What does this idea say?" Or "What is the visual communicating?" Or "Which words or phrases have the most meaning to you?"

What you'll get back from questions like these -- specific questions rooted in understanding how a piece of communication functions -- is something exceedingly rare, and something that has real value: insight.