Ultimately, if nothing else helps, Consequences will ensue. This only happens after a person had enough warning ahead of time to change course, either through me telling them or by the obviously harmful nature of their action inherently. Consequences, again, are not meant to be pointed. I'm not a parent, I'm not raising children, it's not my responsibility nor goal to show people what's right or wrong through punishment, consequences are always defensive. Consequences can be, for example, the end of a friendship, refusal to talk to a person, me starting to dislike a person I previously liked¹⁾ or any other defensive action that insulates me from the damage that the problem in question would otherwise cause²⁾.

Where there are good odds that nothing irreversibly bad has happened by the time I issue a Final Warning, reaching the Consequences stage means that now is indeed the point where bad things have happened. I might be disappointed by a person, I might stop liking a person, if any of that kind happens, it happens in this step. All previous steps, step Notice through step Final Warning are designed to prevent this particular moment by giving the other person plenty of room to cooperate to avoid it or, failing that, to make the process to a consequence as transparent and predictable as possible for the other person. The goal, in every single step until here is to return to a pre-notice situation where everything is fine and the person and I get along, stage S5 only exists because there sometimes are situations where the closest you can get to a pre-notice situation is by cutting your losses.

See also: Notice, Warning, Repeated Warning, Final
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