Get a group of people to keep a collective story going (in often funny and unexpected ways!) by each taking their turn to add to the story with either “Fortunately...” and “Unfortunately...”

How to do it

This is a fun warmup activity to help people get into a more creative mindset. It's also useful if your meeting, workshop or offsite involves people having to do some storytelling or presentations.

Explain that you will start a story by telling the first line of that story. The next person has to keep the story going with a line starting with the word 'Fortunately'. The next person has to continue the story, except with a line starting with 'Unfortunately', and so on.

As the facilitator, kick off the story with a simple sentence that presents a scenario, and then pass to the next person, and so on. Keep going around the group for at least a couple of rounds. This works best with an odd number of people, so that everyone gets a chance to play both good and bad.

Example:

• You: Our company is going to have a new on-site kitchen and dining area
• Next person: Fortunately, all food is free!
• Next person: Unfortunately, the only food on offer is cabbage
• ...