Decisions affecting others and facing their costs

Oftentimes, the less visible costs to a given decision aren’t financial–at least not in the direct, immediate sense: the cheaper appliance requires more time and effort on your part to operate and maintain. Such examples are (fortunately) easy enough to learn over time, and generally easy to recover from–you adjust your purchase decision the next time around, no real harm done.

More insidious, harder to foresee, and far harder to recover from, are costs incurred against your trust and reputation. When your decision causes others to lose trust in you, and lowers your reputation in their eyes, oftentimes they won’t tell you–but they’ll tell other people, potential customers and clients, compounding the damage.

When you’re facing a decision–especially an unavoidable one–that will have a profound effect on others’ lives or livelihood, or surprise them in a way not obviously positive, it’s worth taking the time to put yourself in their shoes. How would you react if this change were imposed on you? Are there ways to reframe, communicate differently, or make small tweaks to the overall thrust that would preserve trust and show respect for the recipient?

Usually the answer is maximum transparency, with kindness where appropriate, but not at the cost of honesty. Aside from your discomfort, will this have a real cost?