Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Reflection: Being in the Minority

Rita Hays
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Palo Alto, CA

In a democracy, the majority rules, but if they rule well they consider the minority, those who disagree with them. In an ideal situation, decisions are made by consensus and everyone, including the minority, is comfortable with the outcome. But this is easier said than done. I would like to talk briefly about my concept of how to be an effective member of the minority.

One of the most professionally challenging moments of my career occurred when my department chairman was promoting a change in procedures at the hospital where we worked that I felt was wrong. Not just wrong, but reprehensible, morally distorted — I was young and idealistic. The problem here was that the chairman had control over our professional futures. At a meeting, he explained what he had in mind and then asked each of us whether we agreed. He went one by one through my colleagues, and each concurred with what he proposed. I was getting more and more upset. I was the last to be asked, and I took him by surprise by saying that I disagreed and why. Keeping my cool, keeping outrage out of my voice, was hard, but I think I succeeded. What was the result? Of course, he went ahead anyway with his plan. But I didn’t get fired. And somehow the outcome was not as terrible as I had feared. I believe that he did listen to my concerns and that some parts of the plan changed before he took action.

So, firstly, to be an effective minority, one must be heard. With my department chairman, all I had to do was to disagree when asked. That was shocking enough. But he and my colleagues were listening, even though they didn’t like what they heard. In effective consensus building, everyone listens so that all opinions, even unpopular opinions, are heard. But of course they won’t be heard unless they are spoken. At the very least, an effective member of the minority speaks up.

Second, it helps to be a team player. If the group feel that everyone is working toward the same goal, but just have different opinions about how to reach that goal, they are more likely to listen. We see it in the workplace: a person who always does his share will be listened to, even if his opinion is not our own.

In our church, and in our families, we sometimes disagree about how to spend our money. We agree on our goals, but our priorities for those goals differ and there is never enough money for everything. When we are working as team players, we work toward solutions that balance these goals without ignoring anyone’s views.

And finally, we must realize that being heard is only the beginning. In the end, the minority opinion is just that. It will be accepted, if at all, by persuasion and gradual alteration of the majority opinion.