Try this activity, and let me know how it goes.

“Fortunately, Unfortunately” is an improvisational storytelling game used in drama classes, with kids, and in group activities.

The game involves coming up with a plot and building on as the story goes.

It’s also a great way to add some program design and evaluation into your staff meetings.

With “Fortunately, Unfortunately”, we’re using this game to review processes and identify outcomes with our programming. Use this as a rapid-fire method to keep your staff on its feet by quickly identifying what went well, what didn’t go well, and how issues were addressed during the program cycle.

To add in the storytelling element, we’re retelling the program and its activities from start to finish, adding in moments of reflection where things went as planned (“fortunately”), where hiccups occurred (“unfortunately”), and how they were addressed (“fortunately”).

This activity is ideal for:

  • Anyone responsible for developing, running and evaluating programs and services 
  • Students interested in evaluative thinking

Here’s what you need:

  • A space large enough to fit in your program staff
  • A space to write on that’s large enough for everyone to view
  • Something erasable to write with
  • Your program’s logic model or curriculum may be useful, too

The steps:

Have a program staff member start off, setting the foundation for the “story”. Here’s an example of how the game can go:

“Fortunately, we were able to recruit the program participants we needed. We outreached to our unusual programming participants, as well as from local schools and other programs.”

The next staff member, building on this aspect of the program design, can say:

“Unfortunately, we recruited more participants than we could accommodate.”

The rest of the game can play out like this:

  • “Fortunately, this shows that our program is becoming more popular.”
  • “Unfortunately, we also had a problem with some of the participants being turned away for not meeting the criteria for the type of program participants we needed.”
  • “Fortunately, this shows we need to clearly adhere to what we outlined as the appropriate person for the program.”
  • “Unfortunately, I’m wondering if this means there’s an even greater need to expand this program to meet the needs of more people.”
  • “Fortunately, this can present an opportunity for us to think about how we could adapt the program’s activities to expand the program to more people.”
  • “Unfortunately, we don’t have the staff capacity to consider this.”
  • “Fortunately, even though our capacity is limited, we can still think about what this can look like, as a way to draw up additional funding support now that we see there’s a need for increased capacity.”

….and so on. To help with the storytelling flow, consider breaking down the game into the following parts:

  • Fundings and stakeholder engagement
  • Logic model development
  • Program curriculum development
  • Program recruitment
  • Program implementation
  • Focus on one specific activitiy within the program
  • Staff involvement
  • Participant feedback

Let’s process what we have:

While you can break up the game in the parts outlined above, pay attention to the area(s) program staff have the most feedback on. This may indicate more attention to this aspect of the program is needed.

Key takeaway

There’s no right or wrong way to do this activity and it’s a fun way to break the monotony of the traditional program debrief meeting. Try this activity and let me know how it goes for you.

Raise Your Voice: How can you use “Fortunately, Unfortunately” with your program staff? Share below in the comments section.