An Elephant? What Elephant? Where Is the Elephant? Decision-Making: Actions, Influences, Impacts and Unintended Consequences: 2040’s Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Issue 75: Sept 29, 2022

In June of this year, we published an article about unintended consequencesand how many organizations, governments and individuals are blindsided by not anticipating the future. Technically, unintended consequences are outcomes of actions in the immediate past or in current times that have unforeseen impacts or influences on the near or far future. Consider a line of dominoes or a house built from playing cards. When one is touched or removed, all the others are influenced and fall into disarray.

Living in the Moment

Although we seem to be evolutionarily programmed to constantly assess our surroundings to ensure safety and security for the long-term, we often react based on the immediate moment. We struggle to understand what seems far off, ambiguous, or outside of our span of knowledge and experience. Furthermore, we prefer…