Consequences can travel farther than the person who initiated them intended.

What you set in motion does not stop at the edge of your intention. A decision made about one situation reaches people you never considered, and by the time it lands, it carries none of the context that made it reasonable to you. Your intent was real and it was also local.

Before a decision that touches other people, ask who is downstream of it that is not in the conversation. You will not always be able to include them. Knowing they exist changes how carefully you decide.