Dealing With Unintended Consequences

Well-intentioned interventions can sometimes have negative or, if you will, undesired effects. Because the overall approach of this book is systemic in nature, the authors devoted some time to discuss “unintended consequences” and to suggest some ways to anticipate them and in cases circumvent them. This chapter addresses some of the unintended consequences that happen when intervening in a dynamic social environment. It provides examples of how unexpected outcomes and side effects that overshadow positive contributions take place as people and organizations design and execute social interventions. Though not all unintended consequences are negative; here they share a case where the unintended consequences were positive and desirable, which allows them to argue that unintended consequences can be both positive and negative. In this chapter, they draw heavily on dynamical systems theory as understood by Coleman, and on the coordinated management of meaning theory, as suggested by Pearce.