Consequence and Sequel
Updated 2026-08-09
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
C&S belongs to Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats family of thinking tools. C stands for Consequence, what will happen in the short term, and S stands for Sequel, what will happen in the long term. The time dimension is divided into immediate consequences, short-term consequences of one to five years, medium-term consequences of five to twenty-five years, and long-term consequences beyond twenty-five years. Because human beings naturally attend to immediate benefit, C&S forces decision makers to think systematically about effects at different time scales, which produces genuinely forward-looking decisions instead of reactive ones.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Widen the time axis: list immediate, short, medium and long-term outcomes before any decision. - Counter present bias: make the distant consequences as visible as the nearby ones. - Expose hidden long tails: actively search for delayed harms the immediate view conceals.
Anchor fast decisions
Built on time-scale extension. Splitting consequences into immediate, short, medium and long-term bands overcomes the preference for the present, so decision makers weigh distant effects rather than chasing the nearest visible reward.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_de_Bonoverified
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