Outcome Harvesting
An evaluation approach that starts by identifying outcomes that occurred and then works backwards to understand contribution.
Outcome Harvesting evaluation field
This page is a plain-English practice summary. It attributes the source field and avoids presenting the framework as Positively Devious intellectual property.
What this framework helps with
- learning in complex or emergent programmes
- capturing unexpected changes
- avoiding overly narrow pre-set indicators
Three questions it helps teams ask
- What changed in behaviour, relationships, policies or practice?
- Who can substantiate the change?
- How did the programme plausibly contribute?
How to use it in youth and community work
Use Outcome Harvesting as a lens for better decisions, not as a script. Start with the local context, invite the people affected by the work into the interpretation, and turn the framework into practical questions, design choices and learning habits.
For Positively Devious, this framework matters because it helps explain one part of the wider conditions around positive deviance: the relationships, opportunities, skills, systems and power arrangements that make uncommon positive outcomes more likely to be noticed and learned from.
What to watch out for
- harvested outcomes still need substantiation
- contribution is not the same as sole attribution
- the process requires careful documentation