A632.7.3.RB Collaborative Decision Making

Reflect on the role of collaboration and getting to resolution in the process of decision-making. Rarely, if ever, do our decisions affect only ourselves. Consider the importance of getting other stakeholders involved; how can they help you make a better decision for all? 

 

            A stakeholder is an individual or group that a project or decision will effect (Kangas, 2011).  By involving stakeholders in the decision making process I can get a clearer and more detailed picture of my constraints, resources and opportunities available to me. Without involving stakeholders I can only draw a black and white picture. This picture may be worthy of hanging on the wall, but if I had involved the stakeholders I would have a bright colorful picture with more detail that is worthy of an art gallery instead. Stakeholders also help save time and money as well. I remember a friend of mine who had a house built for her. The builder started to make decisions about the layout and design of the house when he hit a roadblock instead of consulting her. When she went to check on the progress, she was upset. She didn’t like the decisions that he had made and as a result he had to redo it. This costed the builder time and money because he didn’t involve his stakeholder in the decision making process.

Recall a specific situation where you are faced with making a decision; within the context of the information in this module’s reading, describe the process you went through and the outcome you were seeking. How did stakeholder involvement help you make a better decision?  If stakeholders were not involved, could they have been? Would that have led to a better resolution? Did you achieve your objective(s)?

I learned the power of stakeholders when I was promoted and put in charge of the USO lounge at Joint-Base Andrews (JBA). I had to manage the lounge on a shoestring budget, but I also saw a huge potential for JBA to make an impact to the service members and their families on the base by offering programs and entertainment events vs. having just a snack bar and lounge inside of the airport on the base. I had so many ideas for programs that I wanted to implement, and I was getting requests from the leadership on the base to provide these programs. I started to talk to my boss about some of these ideas. I was very excited about the potential, but I needed more resources and approval. This is where I learned a lesson about expectation management. My boss quickly turned me down. He explained that he was worried I would be taking on too much, the budget wouldn’t allow it and there were other variables that made this request impossible. Through our conversation he brought me down to earth, which I needed. As Levine (2009) points out, “The area that can be influenced is people’s expectations.” (p.141). After the conversation I understood my constraints, and I realized that I needed to communicate these constraints and expectations to my shareholders which were base leadership and my volunteers. However, I still had a problem. How could I help meet the needs of the base while still operating under my constraints?  

Through this conversation with my boss he let me know that I could reach out to our Programs and Services department. Their job was to help implement and manage different programs and services throughout our geographical area. They also had a mobile unit that could travel and provide supplies and entertainment. Bingo! I set up a meeting with Program and Services and explained to them my dilemma. This is when we formed an agreement. Our agreement was a joint vision where we set up a way that we could partner with each other to create a win-win (Levine, 2009).

In our agreement we included several of Levine’s (2009) 10 Essential Elements for an agreement. First, we created and intent and vision (Leveine, 2009). The vision was for more visibility on base, to allow for my volunteers to participate in “fun” events, and to support the service members and their families at JBA in a meaningful way. After some discussion we made promises and actions step that will get the desired result (Levien, 2009).

My Promises:

-          I would be the one to screen the larger requests from the base and notify Programs and Services of requests that I felt we needed to support.

-          I would share my points of contact with Programs and Services to help them build relations with the base.

-          I would help provide volunteers and logistics support for the events.

-          I would cross advertise events through social media for the JBA USO and the Mobile USO

Programs and Services Promises:

-          They would notify me if they were planning on doing one of their signature events on the base, and allow my volunteers to get “first dibs” to help out at the event.

-          They would respond to my requests promptly and let me know what resources they could provide.

-          I could call upon the mobile unit without going through a formal request process together we could coordinate and support smaller events as we saw fit.

-          They would cross advertise on social media for the JBA USO and Mobile USO.

Once we started the implementation of our promises and agreement, we had almost instant mutual success. I had a better understanding of what my limitations were which helped me make better decisions on what was feasible and beneficial to the organization and JBA. We were now able to support events on the base which attracted 100’s of people. My volunteers were happy because they felt that they were serving in meaningful ways. Programs and Services was happy because they didn’t have to spend their time filtering through requests, and trying to figure out who to contact on the base. We even had several community organizations come forward and donate to the USO as a result of events on JBA.

Levine (2009) points out with any agreement or resolution problems and conflicts will arise that call each party to adjust or reaffirm the agreement. This was very true in this agreement also. Programs and Services implemented one of their signature events on the base without telling me. My volunteers were very upset, and the base was upset because there was a lot of disorganization due to a lack of communication. We had another discussion and I outlined our original agreement and pointed out the negative consequences by not bringing me in as a stakeholder. I pointed out that if I had been involved, the event would have gone a lot smoother for them as well. For example, the event was at one of the base’s swimming pools. However, what Programs and Services didn’t know was that there were two community pools. As a result, the USO’s marketing didn’t clarify which pool the event was at. One of the pool managers called me upset that he didn’t know about an event that was happening at his pool, which in reality was at the other pool. I told Programs and Services, that had I known they were doing this event from the beginning I could have told them there were two pools. Our advertising would have been correct and we wouldn’t have other stakeholders upset with us. I also noted that they didn’t have enough volunteers for the event, which I could have easily provided. As a result of this discussion our agreement was reaffirmed, but I also had to hit the reset button and not let my anger about the situation affect my relationship with them and our agreement.

In the end we all achieved our objective of getting more visibility on the base and serving the military community in a more meaningful way. The USO was able to go from serving about 100 people a month on the base to about 300 per month. We also saw an increase in social media traffic about the USO at JBA and we saw an increase in donations as well. By partnering Programs and Services as a stakeholder I was able to make quicker decisions on whether I could support a request or not. I also found it much easier to work within my limitations. For example, if I received a request to feed 500 people in a months’ time I knew that this was a reasonable request, and I could work with Programs and Services to meet the request. Before this agreement was made, I would have to go to my boss, who would go to our Development team to ask for money, who would then go to Programs and Services, then filter back down to my boss, which resulted in the need for more clarification on both sides and the process would repeat itself again. If the answer was no, I would have to start calling businesses to see if they could donate. This process took so long I usually wouldn’t know if I could actually support the request until it was almost too late or turn down the request.

Identify 3 ways you may use this learning experience to make better decisions in the future.

This experience taught me that communication is key with stakeholders as decisions and agreements are being made. Everyone has to cross communicate, and if you are the facilitator of that communication then it is important to understand the needs and limitations of each party to make better decisions. Another learning for me was how stakeholders allow for more creativity in decisions (Levine, 2009). As word got out, I started getting too many requests for me to manage easily. Most of the requests involved providing food for an event. I found myself constantly going to the store, ordering food from different restaurants and delivering the food to the different events. After expressing how it was getting difficult to juggle everything Programs and Services told me that they had a large stack of gift cards to different restaurants and grocery stores. They could give me some of the gift cards, so instead of me handling the logistics for the request I could simply give them a gift card to make their own purchase. The USO was still supporting the event, but I wasn’t spending all of my time shopping and delivering food. As a result of this learning I know how important it is to get insight from others to help find creative solutions to a problem. The final learning for me was expectation management in my decision making. In other words, I have to remind myself of my limitations to make sure that I do not stretch myself out too thin, or make promises that I can’t keep in future decisions. Sometimes it is difficult to say no, but I learned it is better say no than to risk your reputation.  

Resources:

Kangas, P. J. (2011). Stakeholder management 101. Quality Progress, 44(3), 72. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/866830096?accountid=27203

Levine, S.. (2009). Getting to resolution: Turning conflict into collaboration. (2^nd ed.). San Fancisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc..