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Maya and Molly – The Avoidable Friendship Break-up

The Problem
Instructions: Please read the story carefully. Analyse the sequence of events and identify the early
warning signs of the dispute.

The Background:
Maya and Molly have been friends since childhood. Their parents have been running a café called
Fusion Brews that combined flavors from various cultures. The idea was to connect different people
and communities to each other and support in community peace building efforts.
Despite being poles apart, Maya and Molly have been the best of friends. When they turned 17, their
parents decided to involve them more actively in running the café.

Early Sparks:
Since the time, Molly and Maya got involved in running the café, they had different ideas and what
would be the best way forward.
Maya came up with the idea to host a weekly quiet conversations night which would support
community leaders to connect and support each other through insights from their experiences. Molly,
on the other hand came up with the idea to host a weekly music night to drum up more customers and
make better profits to make the business sustainable. Their parents implemented both the ideas and
were assured that Maya and Molly would be able to run the café well, when the café keys would be
handed to them once they turned 18.
Over the period of one year, Maya and Molly would dream of and strategize what they would like to
do with the café. Different ideas were discussed but nothing was ever finalized given that they could
never agree on the best course of action.
The year went by quickly and they both turned 18. Their parents handed over the café to them. Molly
believed they needed to maximize profits to become sustainable as a business while Maya thought
that the community should always be at the forefront of their business vision and mission.
Molly: Maya, as you are aware, the café has not been doing well over the past two years. If we want
to keep it open longer, we need to be able to make profits. We need to focus on creating profits so that
we can later find ways to support the community.
Maya: Molly, the core vision of the café was to be a safe place for the community to connect, for
leaders to be able to plan events with our support.
Molly: We can continue to do this. We just need to start charging customers and people here for more
than an hour. As you know, we have so many people who sit here for hours on end and only order a
coffee. We need to start charging a nominal fee for anyone here for more than an hour.
Maya: I don’t like your idea one bit. This is not what the café is for.
Molly: They use our WIFI, our electricity for free and we are getting crushed under the bills.
Maya: Fine. We can try it but I don’t agree with you.

© YCM 2018-2023
 India’s First Skill Builder & Service Provider For
Dispute Resolution to Dispute Prevention For All

A few days later Molly came into the café fuming and confronted Maya about what she had been
doing.
Molly (angrily): How dare you! You said we would try my method out and save our café. And you, you
have been going behind my back and giving people ideas on how to circumvent the one-hour rule!
What’s wrong with you?
Maya (while rolling her eyes): Oh please, it is not a big deal. Some of the customers are here only for
a few minutes above an hour. It didn’t seem right to charge them for that.
Molly: How could you? You broke my trust!
Maya: And you, you never listen Molly, to the ideas I have. There are other ways to make more money
through the community. We can host peace building events in our café and make some money of those.
Yes, it would be more work, but we wouldn’t be straying from the principles on which the café was
built. You are just lazy and want to take the easy way out.
Molly: How dare you!

The Friendship Break-up:

Molly stormed off that day without saying another word. She refused to get in touch with Maya post
the incident.
Their parents made efforts to get them to have a conversation with each other. All for nought.
Molly walked away from everything including the café and moved to another city.

© YCM 2018-2023