Card #71 – ”Beware Unintended” from the Creative Whack Pack
Available on the iOS App Store and as a physical deck of cards

Life is filled with unintended consequences. Sometimes the opposite of what we desire occurs when our ideas are successfully implemented.
Remember the story of King Midas? According to legend, Midas so loved gold that when the god Dionysus offered to grant his deepest wish, he asked that all he touched be turned into this precious metal.
At first, Midas was delighted with his wealth-creating power, but when he discovered that his contact made food inedible and loved ones lifeless, he soon realized that getting what you want can have unintended — and undesirable — consequences.
Here’s another example. In preparing for the Olympics, the coach of a leading crew team invited a meditation instructor to teach awareness techniques to his crew. He hoped that such training would enhance their rowing effectiveness.
As the crew learned more about meditation, they became more synchronized, there was less resistance, and their strokes got smoother. The irony is that they went slower. It turned out that the crew became more interested in being in harmony than in winning.
And finally: In the mid-1960s, the Japanese resort town of Atami lobbied hard to get a high-speed “bullet train” link to Tokyo, then three hours away. After the railway was completed, tourism declined — in part because the romance of going away for the weekend was lost in a place that could be reached in only fifty minutes.
— If you are successful in your issue, what do you think might be some of the unintended negative consequences?
— What do you think might be some of the unintended positive consequences?