Grassroots Diplomacy Strategy Development Methodology
Step 1: Determine the facts in the situation
- 4 kids were given hats
- Jack is going to be staying at the youth center (schooling, health center, general resources for street kids) 5 months
- The staff was unconcerned about the 4 kids who were not given the same gifts as the majority
- Presents sent by an international donation organization
- Staff members allocated and labeled the gifts for the children
- Jack was invited to give out the gifts because of his status as a guest
- The kids were convinced that Jack was the one who got the gifts for them
- Kids are mad about the way they received the gifts rather than just the gift itself.
Step 2: Define the problem and the stakeholders – those with a vested interest in the outcome
- The kids who did not get a hat, want to get a gift
- Jack who gave the gifts and got the mad faces
- The staff who bought the gifts but didn’t buy enough or care
- The kids who did not get a hat didn’t get the same ceremony as everyone else
Step 3: Determine and distinguish between the personal and professional motivations of the stakeholders.
- Kids
- Don’t want to be unprofessional and unthankful for their gifts outwardly
- Are personally unhappy with the hats
- Want to maintain status and relationships with their peers, staff, and with Jack.
- Jack
- Seems uncomfortable at the prospect of taking credit for getting the gifts for the kids, but recognizes the value of his relationship with them.
- Doesn’t want to personally upset the kids who he is to be with for a while
- Doesn’t want to professionally annoy the staff and seem unprofessional.
- Staff
- They have professional concerns, don’t want Jack to create issues for them
- Allocate gifts to the kids where they were available.
Step 4: Formulate (at least three) alternative solutions
- Potential Solution: 1
- going out and getting gifts for the four that didn’t get gifts
- How does it solve the problem?
o Pros:- give the four kids gifts and make them feel appreciated
- Make the kids not hate Jack
- o Cons:
- introduces additional costs where funding might not be available
- Making the staff think lesser of Jack
- How does it save the face of those involved?
- Protecting Jack’s reputation as the suspected gift giver. He is being fair to all kids by giving a gift.
- Save the face of the kids who did not receive a gift. Reduces questions from themselves and others about why they specifically did not receive one.
- Implications on relationships
o Short-term- Kids like him
- Staff is annoyed by him
- o Long-term
- Kids will remember him as thoughtful
- Staff may make fun of him
- Implications on the venture
o Short-term- Kids get gifts
- o Long-term
- What if there are more kids the next year that don’t get gifts? May ruin the budget the center has if money gets spent on getting more presents.
- Sets precedent that Jack or the Center has the resources to go out and buy gifts, which they might not.
- Potential Solution: 2
- Telling the 4 kids who have given the hats the reality of the situation, that they were 4 gifts short. And then tell the kids that they are going to work to get them the same gifts.
- How does it solve the problem?
- o Pros:
- honest with them so they will be less upset about the situation.
- Eventually going to get them the gifts.
- Jack will get to explain that he is not the one that is responsible. Avoids hard “no”s, keeping the chance for a gift open without making promises either.
- o Cons
- Does not resolve the disappointment the children have about not receiving their gifts in the ceremonial fashion
- How does it save the face of those involved?
- This saves face for the staff because it would be dealt with in a way that only involved those who were impacted and not publicly.
- This saves face for Jack because if the situation is explained to the kids then they would probably be less upset with him specifically
- Implications on relationships
- o Short-term
- Kids may be temporarily bothered by the fact they didn’t get a specific gift.
- o Long-term
- Building honest/truthful communication between center staff, guests, and kids.
- Implications on the venture
- o Short-term
- Children will be less upset assuming they are going to get gifts
- o Long-term
- Can be assumed that Jack is going to keep getting them things
- Potential Solution: 3
- Giving the 4 kids who were not gifted the hats in a ceremonial way, a ceremony where they received something
- How does it solve the problem?
- Solves the issue of them being upset that they didn’t get the hats in the same way that the other students got gifts and makes them feel appreciated
- o Pros
- Allows the children to not feel left out
- Would improve Jack’s relationship with the kids
- o Cons
- The staff would be annoyed
- Does not resolve the issue quickly
- Possibly would confuse/upset the other children.
- They may question why these 4 kids are receiving this special ceremony
- How does it save the face of those involved?
- Saves face for the 4 children, because it would remove the question of what reasons led to them not ceremonially getting gifts in the first place
- Would save face for Jack because the kids would not be upset
- Would not impact the staff, since there is no blame
- Implications on relationships
- o Short-term
- It Will make the kids feel happy
- o Long-term
- This will negatively impact Jack’s relationship with the staff at the center, they do not see an issue and he is going against them
- Implications on the venture
- o Short-term
- Solves the issue without getting the kids new gifts
- Kids who only got hats may be embarrassed for being put on a show
- o Long-term
- Makes the staff think lesser of jack because he is wasting time
- Embarrassing the kids who did not get the hats
- Potential Solution: 4
- Telling all the children who were responsible for sending them the gifts that they received
- How does it solve the problem?
- Takes the responsibility away from the staff and jack and solves the issue of the kids being mad at the staff and jack for something that wasn’t their fault
- o Pros
- Removes animosity towards Jack as the reason 4 kids didn’t get gifts
- No expectation to spend resources getting additional gifts.
- o Cons
- Does not resolve the disappointment these children feel
- Still mad at jack
- Makes staff and donor look bad for not getting enough
- How does it save face of those involved?
- The failure of four kids to recieve gifts is no longer placed on Jack
- Removes blame and appreciation from the staff and Jack
- Implications on relationships
- o Short-term
- Makes them see jack as reasonable for explaining to him
- o Long-term
- May affect the youth centers relationship with external funding/gift-giving
- May make youth, not trust staff and others as they are coming short
- Implications on the venture
- o Short-term
- The children possibly will not see Jack as favorably since they know he was not responsible for the gifts
- o Long-term
- Children may fight for toys and gifts since some
Step 5: Seek additional assistance, as appropriate
- Maybe Jack could ask a single staff member who he trusts more than the rest what they think the best decision would be to do.
Step 6: Select the best course of action
- The best course of action would be to do nothing.
This would save face because it wouldn’t put the kids in a spotlight which would make them embarrassed for being the only ones who didn’t get a gift and it would save face for the staff and Joe because they wouldn’t have to explain why they messed up on giving gifts or anything like that.
The short-term implications of this would be that the kids would be a little upset for a while but eventually, the next round of gifts would come around and they would be fine. They may have a bad relationship with Jack for a little bit of time as they get over this incident happening but then they will be fine.
The long-term implications of this would be that the kids won’t think of Jack as a person who can give them things all the time and take advantage of that. It will also keep the staff from calling jack names and thinking little of him.
This solution would be better than others because it is the easiest way to go about the situation without ruining the balance that exists between the staff and the kids. It protects Jack from being someone who ruins this balance and loses face in the eyes of both the kids and the staff.
Step 7: List the sequence of actions you will take to implement your solution.
- Step 1: tell jack not to engage with the kids who received the hats and are unhappy.
- Step 2: make sure the staff know that Jack isn’t going to be doing anything about the situation so that they don’t tease him anymore about it
- Step 3: get Jack introduced to the kids and make him get on their food side in another way other than giving them gifts