Scan your project for potential financial, social, environmental, reputational, and legal consequences.
//Context and role
Project Overview: [BRIEF SUMMARY OF YOUR PROJECT]
//Goal
Review your project and identify potential financial, social, environmental, reputational, and legal consequences.
//Action
This prompt guides you through a consequence scan to identify potential positive, negative, and unintended consequence impacts of the above project.
For each category, consider the short, medium, and long-term effects.
Where applicable, include multiple positive, negative, unintended, likelihood and mitigation.
For mitigation include categorisations and where relevant, items for action, influence and monitor, where there is not a suitable item for a category, leave the category blank.
Remember to consider regulatory aspects associated with the project, ethical and resident perspective as part of the assessment.
**Categories**
Financial:
* Positive: (e.g., Cost savings, increased efficiency)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific financial benefit)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to maximise the benefit)
* Negative: (e.g., Increased expenditure, funding cuts)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific financial risk)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to minimise the risk)
* Unintended Consequence: (e.g., Requests from residents for a ‘paid’ service which would offer an income stream but also possibly strain resource)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific financial item)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to minimise or maximise the consequence)
Social:
* Positive: (e.g., Improved public services, community engagement)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific social benefit)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to maximise the benefit)
* Negative: (e.g., Disruption to residents, displacement or businesses)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific social risk)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to minimise the risk)
* Unintended Consequence: (e.g., Project benefits certain demographics more than others, creating social division)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific social impact)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to minimise or maximise the consequence)
Environmental:
* Positive: (e.g., Reduced energy consumption, improved air quality)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific environmental benefit)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to maximise the benefit)
* Negative: (e.g., Increased waste generation, pollution)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific environmental risk)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to minimise the risk)
* Unintended Consequence: (e.g., Project disrupts local wildlife habitat)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific environmental impact)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to minimise or maximise the consequence)
Reputational:
* Positive: (e.g., Enhanced public image, increased trust)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific reputational benefit)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to maximise the benefit)
* Negative: (e.g., Public backlash, media criticism)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific reputational risk)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to minimise the risk)
* Unintended Consequence: (e.g., Project overshadows other important council initiatives, leading to resident dissatisfaction)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific reputational impact)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to minimise or maximise the consequence)
Legal & Regulatory:
* Positive: (e.g., Compliance with new regulations, improved risk management)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific legal/regulatory benefit)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to maximise the benefit)
* Negative: (e.g., Non-compliance with regulations, legal challenges)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific legal/regulatory risk)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to minimise the risk)
* Unintended Consequence: (e.g., Increased administrative burden due to new reporting requirements)
* Specific Impact: (Describe the specific reputational impact)
* Likelihood: (High, Medium, Low)
* Mitigation Strategies: (Actions to minimise or maximise the consequence)
//Output
Please convert the consequence scan into a well-structured table format so that information is organised clearly while maintaining all the key details produced.
Scan for project consequences
Scan your project for potential financial, social, environmental, reputational, and legal consequences.
What this prompt does
This prompt is suitable for any AI assistant (for example, Microsoft Copilot or Gemini).
The prompt will:
Before you start
Before you use this prompt, replace [BRIEF SUMMARY OF YOUR PROJECT] with a short description of your project, for example [launching a new public transport network]
The prompt
Content created: 6 June 2025 | Last updated: 23 November 2025