What happens after the immediate result?
A decision can trigger responses that alter its initial effect. Requiring approval for every small purchase may reduce unnecessary orders, but it can also create queues and delay essential work. Second-order thinking follows the likely reactions beyond the first visible benefit or cost.
Go deeper
Trace one more step
A team introduces an approval rule to control purchases. The first effect is straightforward: fewer people can place orders without review.
The next effects depend on how people respond. Requests may accumulate with one approver, staff may order larger quantities less often, or urgent work may pause while permission is pending.
Second-order effects are consequences of the initial consequences. They are not automatically negative, and they are not always predictable.
A useful analysis names the mechanism rather than inventing a distant chain of disasters. Who changes their behaviour? What new delay or incentive appears? Following one or two plausible responses can expose a trade-off that the immediate result alone leaves invisible.