You know who has a stake in the $4,800 decision and what each of them wants. Today you work out what the decision actually does to each of them, good and bad.
Thirteen sections, a bit over an hour all up. One section is one sitting. Do that one and stop.
Five Star has saved $4,800.00, and these are the two ways you could spend it.
A perspective is a stakeholder's viewpoint, opinion, interest or concern: what they want, before anything is decided.
Sanjay is an internal stakeholder. Your whānau at home are an external stakeholder.
A consequence is what happens to Five Star, or to one of its stakeholders, because of a decision.
Here are two consequences of choosing Option A.
A consequence for Five StarThe website fills some of the empty hours from Tuesday to Thursday, so those afternoons now bring in revenue.
A consequence for your whānauFive Star keeps $1,400.00 in the account, so a bad month at the salon is less likely to become a bad month at home.
A sentence can be true about the decision but still not be a consequence of it.
A consequence goes beyond a fact, to a flow-on effect or an impact.
Anything already part of the data used to describe the decision is not a consequence of that decision, however true the sentence is.
Here is the same rule for a charity that is buying a vehicle. The description of that decision already says that transport adds $2,000 to the cost.
Not a consequence (but a fact)“Transportation will add $2,000 to the cost of the vehicle.” The $2,000 is already in the description of the decision.
A consequence“The vehicle budget will need to cover the $2,000 transportation cost, reducing the amount the charity can spend on vehicle expenses such as repairs and maintenance and insurance.” The sentence says what the $2,000 does to the charity.
Clients can now book online if Option A is chosen. Is that a consequence?
No. Option A already says that the website has a page clients can book from, so you knew that before you chose. A sentence that only repeats the option is a fact, like the charity's $2,000.
Ask what the online booking does for somebody, and you have a consequence: a client who works nights books a Wednesday afternoon that used to earn no revenue. That is a positive consequence for your clients.
A consequence can be good news or bad news. Option A has both in it, and which one you find depends on which stakeholder you are asking about.
Here are four consequences of Option A. Start from a fact at the top of the chain, then go one step further, to a person, and ask so what does that mean for them?
What Option A gives somebody. Each chain starts on a fact and ends on the positive consequence it leads to.
so what does that mean for your clients?
and what does that mean for Five Star?
What the same option costs somebody. Each chain starts on a fact and ends on the negative consequence it leads to.
so what does that mean for Sanjay?
and what does that mean for Five Star?
Look at the left column. The fact is the same both times. “A website clients can book from at any hour.” Asked about your clients, the website gives a night-shift worker booking a Wednesday at 11pm. Asked about Five Star, the same website gives you $88.00 a week of extra profit.
Change which stakeholder you are asking about and the same fact gives you a different consequence, which is why a consequence has to be written for somebody.
Merit asks for four consequences, and it says whose they have to be.
You need to write two consequences for Five Star itself, and one each for two different stakeholders.
Two consequences for Five Star, one for Sanjay and one for my Saturday regulars.
Four consequences, all of them for Five Star.
Here are the four boxes you are filling.
So: two of the four consequences are about Five Star itself. What the decision does to the salon. The other two consequences are one each for two different people.
You could write two brilliant consequences about Sanjay, but you would still have filled only three boxes, because he is one person. The fourth box needs somebody else, your clients, your whānau, or you.
Seven sentences written under the heading Consequences. Some are consequences and some are facts that were already part of the decision. Pick an answer and the reason appears underneath.
That sentence is a fact, not a consequence. The $4,600.00 was written into Option B before anybody chose anything, so the sentence only repeats the decision. Ask what spending that money does to Five Star.
“Choosing Option B spends $4,600.00 of the $4,800.00 Five Star has saved, which leaves $200.00 in the account, so replacing a dryer that broke this winter would have to go on a credit card.”
That sentence is a consequence. The $4,600.00 was the fact; this is what it then does to what Five Star can cope with.
That sentence is a fact, not a consequence, and this is the hardest one on the page. The decision does cause it, and it names who it affects. But Option A already said it: a page clients can book from, and new clients can find the salon online. Like the charity's $2,000, it is already in the description of the decision. Ask what it does for Five Star and for a client, and you have two consequences.
“Choosing Option A fills hours that used to earn no revenue, which is $88.00 a week of extra profit for Five Star, and a night-shift worker who is free on a Wednesday gets an hour that was empty.”
That sentence is a consequence: it names the money on both sides of the week.
That sentence is a fact, not a consequence. Both halves are arithmetic from Option A's own figures. Ask what having $1,400.00 still in the account lets Five Star do.
“Choosing Option A leaves $1,400.00 in the account, so a dryer failing this winter could be replaced straight away and the salon would keep working.”
That sentence is a consequence, and it names who it lands on. The same fact, the quiet afternoons filling, is $88.00 a week of extra profit for Five Star and another year on a bad floor for Sanjay.
Notice what it does not say. “Sanjay is busier” is a fact, not a consequence: Sanjay is paid $24.00 an hour to work, and a full chair is the job. The harm is what Sanjay is left with, not the work itself.
That sentence is a consequence of choosing A, which means not choosing B. What you did not do has consequences too.
Sometimes the decision does not affect one of your stakeholders at all. That person is still a stakeholder, and you still write about them.
A stakeholder who is not impacted by a decision is still a valid stakeholder. Explain the reason.
The two sentences below say the same thing about the same people. Only one of them shows you thought about those people.
Earns the mark“My Saturday regulars are not affected, because Option A only fills hours that were already empty, nobody loses an appointment they already had on a Saturday, and the service, the price and the time it takes all stay the same.”
No reason“My Saturday regulars are not affected.”The sentence gives no reason. Say why the Saturday regulars are not affected, starting with because.
Without the because, nothing on the page separates a stakeholder you worked out was unaffected from a stakeholder you ran out of ideas for.
So far you have written what the decision does to different stakeholders. That sentence is a consequence. A response is the next sentence: what Five Star would then do about a consequence it does not like.
Option A's booking page costs $45.00 a month from its second year. Here is that fact, a consequence of it, and a response to the consequence.
A response is never a sentence on its own. Write the consequence first and then write a response.
Only write a response to a consequence you have already explained. Your answer must also say how the decision fits Five Star's pūtake, the reason the salon exists.
A booking page that brings in no new clients takes $45.00 a month off the profit that is Five Star's pūtake, so stop paying for it if hardly any new clients came through after a year.
Stop paying for the booking page.
“Add up the new clients after a year, and stop paying if hardly any came through. A page that brings in no new clients is $45.00 a month straight off the profit that is Five Star's pūtake.”
The first sentence is the action, word for word from the response in the picture. The second sentence says why stopping is right for this salon rather than any salon, by ending on the reason Five Star is open at all.
A perspective and a consequence happen at different times.
Be sure you can tell the difference between perspectives and consequences.
Sanjay wants the new floor. That is his perspective, before the decision.
Sanjay wants the new floor. That is a consequence of the decision.
Your clients are interested in a salon that is comfortable to sit in for two and a half hours, and worried about a week with the doors shut.
True before anything is decided. Full of wanting words.
Because Five Star chose Option A, your clients sit in the same old seating for another year. They do keep the appointments they have already booked, because Option A never shuts the salon for a refit week.
Only makes sense once Option A was chosen. One negative, one positive.
Here is one answer about the decision, built up from the simplest to the fullest. Five Star has already chosen Option A.
Press each grade to see what it adds.
“Five Star chose to spend $3,400.00 of its $4,800.00 savings on a website and advertising to fill its quiet midweek days, rather than refit the front of the salon for $4,600.00.”
Achieved: The decision and the option it beat, with the figures. Nothing about perspectives or consequences yet.
The things people ask at exactly this point.
No, “Clients can book online” is not a consequence. Option A already says clients can book online, so the sentence only describes the option.
A figure already used to describe the decision cannot also be a consequence of the decision.
Five Star still has $1,400.00, so an unexpected repair could be paid for from savings.
The website and the advertising cost $3,400.00.
A consequence“A client on night shift can book a Wednesday hour that used to earn no revenue.”
Not a consequence (but a fact)“Clients can book online.”
No, a consequence does not always have to be about money. A consequence can also end on something somebody can now do or not do. “The quiet Wednesday afternoons fill up” is a consequence. “The quiet Wednesday afternoons fill up, so two more cut and blow waves a week bring in $88.00 more profit” is the same consequence followed one step further, to the money.
Follow a consequence for Five Star through to the money. Not “the salon would be busier” but “the salon would take more revenue, so the profit would rise”.
You can usually find the second consequence by asking “so what does that mean?” about the first consequence.
Or look for the opposite sign. Option A leaves money in the account, which is positive, and adds $45.00 a month from next year, which is negative.
Write a positive consequence and a negative consequence.
Option A leaves $1,400.00 in Five Star's account, which is positive, and adds a fee of $45.00 a month from next year, which is negative.
Option A brings more clients, and Option A brings more sales revenue.
Read each sentence and work out what is wrong before you open the answer.
The problem. That is a perspective, filed under consequences. The sentence says what Sanjay wanted, which was true before the decision was made and would still be true if Five Star had chosen Option B.
A consequence has to be something that happened because of the decision.
“Choosing Option A means the floor does not get replaced, so Sanjay is still standing on a floor that is lifting at the edges, and now for more of the week.”
Write the consequence for Sanjay.
The problem. That answer is not a consequence. That figure was on the page before anything was decided, so the $3,400.00 is one of the numbers the decision was made with. A consequence has to go beyond a statement of fact to a flow-on effect.
“Paying $3,400.00 for option A still leaves $1,400.00 in the account, so an unexpected repair could be covered out of savings rather than stopping work.”
Go one step further.
The problem. That answer gives two consequences, where the requirement is four. Both of those are good consequences, and nothing is wrong with either sentence.
One is for the organisation and one is for a stakeholder. The requirement is two for the organisation, plus one each for two different stakeholders, four in total.
“Consequences: choosing Option A leaves $1,400.00 in the account, so an unexpected repair would not stop the salon working. The booking page costs Five Star $45.00 a month from its second year, a new bill out of the same profit. Sanjay stays on the lifting floor for another year, and now for more of the week. Clients who are free midweek but could never get through on the phone can now book those hours themselves.”
Write all four consequences.
National Moderator Report, AS92028: “two consequences… for the organisation, as well as a consequence for two stakeholders.”
The problem. The reason is missing, and the sentence stops exactly where the mark starts. Saying your Saturday regulars are not affected is probably true, and an unaffected stakeholder is a perfectly valid thing to write about. The reason is the part that shows you thought about them rather than ran out of ideas.
“Our Saturday regulars are not affected, because Option A only fills hours that were empty. It takes an appointment away from nobody who already had one, and leaves the service, the price and the time it takes exactly as they are.”
Finish the sentence.
National Moderator Report: a stakeholder may not be impacted, “this is valid and the reason should be explained.”
Every term here has a sentence that works and a sentence that does not, because that is where the difference actually shows.
What actually happens to the organisation or a stakeholder because of the decision, written for somebody.
To write a consequence: state the fact, then ask so what does that mean for each stakeholder? until you reach money, or something somebody can now do or not do.
How many: Merit asks for four: two for the organisation, plus one each for two different stakeholders. A stakeholder who is not affected still gets a sentence, with the reason why not.
Write this“Option A leaves $1,400.00 in the account, so a broken dryer would not stop the salon working.”
Not a consequence (but a fact)“Option A costs $3,400.00.” You had that number in front of you before you decided anything.
What the organisation would do about a consequence it does not like.
Explaining a consequence is a Merit move. Saying what Five Star would then do about that consequence is an Excellence one.
To write a response: name the consequence, then name the action. Never the action on its own.
Write this“Choosing Option A means Sanjay stands on the lifting floor for another year. Five Star could put that floor first in next year's savings, ahead of anything else.”
Not a response (but an action on its own)“Five Star could put the floor first next year.” The consequence this answers is missing, so nobody can see what Five Star is fixing.
All four parts are about Option A: spending $3,400.00 on a website and advertising to fill the quiet days. Everything you need is on this page.
a.Two consequences for Five Star of choosing Option A, and make one positive and one negative. Follow each one through to the money.
Positive. “Paying $3,400.00 still leaves $1,400.00 in the account so if the big dryer failed this winter Five Star could cover it out of savings instead of stopping work.”
Negative. “From next year the booking page costs $45.00 a month, so Five Star has signed up to a bill it did not have before, out of the same profit, whether the advertising worked or not.”
Both end on a figure, and they point opposite ways, as the task asks: one leaves money in the account, the other commits money out of it.
b.One consequence for one stakeholder, somebody other than Five Star itself.
Sanjay. “Choosing Option A means the floor does not get replaced, so Sanjay is still standing on a floor that is lifting at the edges, and now for more of the week, because the quiet afternoons are the ones filling up.”
My clients. “People who are free midweek but could never get through on the phone can now book a Tuesday or Wednesday hour themselves, at whatever time of night suits them.”
Your two consequences for Five Star in part (a), and one each for Sanjay and your clients here, make the full set: two for the organisation, one each for two different stakeholders. Write both stakeholder consequences and you have all four consequences.
c.Name a stakeholder who is not affected by Option A, and say why not.
“My Saturday regulars are not affected, because Option A only fills hours that were empty. Option A takes an appointment away from nobody who already had one, and leaves my regulars the same service, at the same price, taking the same time.”
The reason is what earns the mark, not the naming. Option A only fills hours that were empty is what makes not affected true, and the rest of the sentence says what stays the same: the service, the price and the time.
d.One step further than this lesson, to see where it goes. Take the negative consequence you wrote in part (a) and say what Five Star could do about it.
“Five Star could respond to the $45.00 a month by reviewing the booking page after a year against how many new clients actually came through it, and dropping it if the extra midweek work never turned up.”
Naming a response is the Excellence move. One rule comes with it: a response only earns the mark for a consequence you actually explained. You cannot respond to something you never raised.
Go Sierra, go!
You followed the $4,800 decision to what it does to each stakeholder, good and bad, and you wrote a response. That is Foundations done, all five lessons.