Cause and Effect
This activity demonstrates the potential to have a broader beneficial impact with our everyday actions. The challenge is to define a possible chain of events that could take you from a specific cause to an effect.
Causes defined in this exercise are everyday tasks such as:
- share meeting minutes in a form that your colleague using a screen reader can access, or
- coach an employee in managing a pension.
While the effects might include:
- grandmother in Ecuador connects with children in LA, or
- polar bear is saved from ice flow in Alaska.
The effects are as far away from the causes as possible.
Use the accompanying Cause and Effect card deck (downloadable pdf), or think up your own examples. These should be as specific and diverse as possible, and the relationship between cause and effect should not immediately be clear.
Step 1
Choose a random card from the Cause deck, then do the same from the Effect deck. Or describe your own cause and effect.
Step 2
Define a chain of effects that takes you all the way from the initial cause to the final effect. Record each effect and map out the chain of effects - allowing branching or multiple paths where they emerge.