Beyond “strong opinions loosely held”: Introducing the C3 Opinion Model

The widely used phrase “strong opinions loosely held” (otherwise known as “strong opinions weakly held”) is just one approach for sharing your opinions, and carries risks of driving behavior and culture that you don’t want. So how else can we express our opinions, and when do different approaches work best?

The C3 opinion model predicts how your opinion will be received based upon the Confidence with which you present your argument, the Conviction by which you hold the opinion, and the Clarity by which your audience understands your intent. The resulting 3D matrix results in four leadership styles that can all be productive in different situations, as well as four styles that are best to be avoided.

Why Care?

The way that we express our opinions and the environment in which they are perceived can have a huge impact on the culture and productivity within our teams. Understanding the C3 opinion model can help you to modify how you phrase your opinion depending on the situation and the behaviors that you want to drive.

The Three C’s

Confidence: this is a measure of the certainty with which you are presenting your opinion. If you are stating your opinion as fact, then the confidence level will be high — this is the strong opinions part of “strong opinions loosely held”. If you are putting a lot of caveats or uncertainty language into your opinion, then the confidence level will be low.

Conviction: this is a measure of how strongly you are tied to your opinion. If it would take a lot to get you to chance your opinion then this level is high. If you could easily be swayed by a good argument or data to a different opinion, then the conviction value will be low — the loosely held part of “strong opinions loosely held”.

Clarity: this is a measure of how your audience interprets your conviction, and expressing an opinion with the same confidence and conviction can result in different levels of clarity for different people. For example, if you have a position of power over someone, such as that gained from having a more senior role, your opinion could be received as a direction even if your conviction level is low.

The 8 Opinion Styles

Opinion styles with transparent intent

If the intent from expressing your opinion is transparent, then the clarity score will be high. The receiver will understand the level of confidence and conviction that you have for the opinion.

The Collaborator: Low Confidence - Low Conviction - High Clarity

Stating your opinion with low confidence and with transparency about your willingness to change your mind can be useful to open up the discussion for new ideas, and for brainstorming with nothing off the table. Your vulnerability creates a culture of trust and openness.

The Pragmatist: Low Confidence - High Conviction - High Clarity

Sometimes it is better to just do something than to keep from making a decision at all. This is especially true when we’re in an exploratory mode without data or understanding to make a fully reasoned decision. By expressing your opinion as a hypothesis that you will be testing by experiment you can help to build a culture where learning from failure is celebrated and innovation can thrive.

The Provoker: High Confidence - Low Conviction - High Clarity

This is the goal from the expression “strong opinions loosely held”. It can promote rigorous debate and invite others to find holes in the ideas. Generally, this works best when everyone is comfortable with a confrontational approach and feels safe to challenge the opinions of everyone else in the discussion.?

The Authority: High Confidence - High Conviction - High Clarity

When you are clear about the path forward and need everyone to get behind it, expressing your opinion with high confidence and being clear about why you have a high level of conviction can help to shortcut unproductive debate and get everyone moving in the same direction.

Opinion styles with concealed intent

Whether done deliberately or not, if the intent from expressing your opinion is not understood by the receiver, you risk damaging relationships and creating a toxic culture.

The Indecisive: Low Confidence - Low Conviction - Low Clarity

If you express your opinion with low confidence and are wrongly perceived to be strongly tied to the idea, you risk your opinion being taken as a directive and the idea-storming that you had hoped for being closed down. This can lead to frustration for you due to the lack of input from others, and frustration in the team about working on ideas that everyone knows is not going to work. Furthermore, if you delay moving forward in the hope of better options being shared then you can be perceived as indecisive.

The Incompetent: Low Confidence - High Conviction - Low Clarity

If you express your opinion with low confidence and are wrongly perceived to be open to changing your mind, you can cause frustration by ignoring alternatives that others might see as a better option and staying with a weak option.??

The Arrogant: High Confidence - Low Conviction - Low Clarity

If you present as being confident in your opinion and are wrongly perceived to be strongly tied to the idea, then you can close down discussions by appearing to make a directive to follow. Unless you are only working with people that are confident in challenging a confrontational approach and understand that that is what you want, then the collegiate-style benefits that the “strong opinions loosely held” approach aims for will be lost and you can come across as non-collaborative and arrogant.?

The Non-collaborative: High Confidence - High Conviction - Low Clarity

If the receiver thinks that you are open to considering alternative options to the one you present with high confidence, then they might feel undervalued and ignored if you are actually strongly tied to the direction.?

Avoiding the low clarity trap

The key to being received with the positive opinion style that you want is to be transparent about your position, and ensuring that your actions are consistent with your words.

For The Collaborator

Instead of saying “Maybe we could do X”, try saying

“I’m 50/50 on whether X a good option or not, and would love to get your insights and explore alternative ideas.”

This has to be a genuine request, and you need to build a track record of trust where others feel secure in challenging your opinion and safe in suggesting alternatives.

For The Pragmatist

Instead of saying “Maybe we could do X”, try saying

“There are a lot of things that we could do now, and I don’t know which approach will be best. I’m thinking that if we do X then we might see Y results. Let’s test this out and use the learnings to guide our next steps.”

The key here is to be clear that you don’t know if things will work out or not, but that we will try it before looking at alternative options.

For The Provoker

Instead of saying “The best option is to do X”, try saying

“I’m 90% sure that doing X will be the best option. What would stop this from working well?”

Here we are demonstrating that there is scope for us to change our mind, and that we are invited the option to be challenged.

For The Authority

Instead of saying “The best option is to do X”, try saying

“We know from experience and data that X is a great option, so let’s get this done and move forward in that direction.”

The difference here is demonstrating that the opinion is thought out and that a decision has already been made so that further discussion can be avoided.

Final Thoughts

It isn’t weak or indecisive to share that you do not have certainty that your opinion is correct. To be seen as a strong leader doesn’t mean that you always need to have the answers. Decisions by consensus are often poor ones, and paralysis from analysis can kill progress. There isn’t one good way to express your opinion, so be clear about what outcomes you want, consider how your words will be heard, and choose the appropriate C3 opinion model approach that you need.

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