Two truths and a lie is a simple team-building activity in which someone shares three “facts” about themselves. Two are truths and one is a lie. The others in the group try to guess which facts are the truths, and which is the lie.
Summary by The World of Work Project
Two Truths and a Lie (Team-building)
This simple, classic team building activity works well with small or medium sized teams. You can repeat it multiple times with the same group to help people get to know each other.
Each member of a team writes down three “facts” about themselves, two truths and one lie. The members of the team then take turns sharing their three statements with the wider team, who each guess which one is the lie.
If you’d like to make the game a bit competitive, introduce points. Every time someone correctly guesses a truth they get a point. Whoever has the most points once everyone has shared their three statements is the winner.
This activity can be used so that everyone takes part in it as an icebreaker or as part of a team meeting . Alternatively, it can be used with just one or two people sharing their three statements as part of, for example, a leadership Q&A session, an “ask me anything” session or even as part of a daily huddle.
Learning More
Team building and ice-breaking activities are very important. They help build trust in teams and help progress team maturity. They can also reduce the risks of social threat and improve interpersonal awareness.
Being able to deliver them is a helpful facilitation and meeting skill. A few specific activities we’ve written about include: Weekend Chairs, Birthday Ordering, Questions Cocktail Party and Human Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Laughter and play are also great ways to help build a team. You can learn more about how playfulness helps teams in our podcast on the subject:
The World of Work Project View
The World of Work Project View
This two truths and a lie team-building activity is very simple and can be quite effective. Through it people get the chance to learn some true (and usually fairly interesting) facts about each other. This helps them build relationships and improves team cohesion. The activity is light-hearted and often quite funny, and we all know the power of laughter for team building.
Overall, we think this is a great, easy activity that team leaders or facilitators should know. It takes hardly any materials and you can easily do it at short notice. If you keep it in your back pocket, it will come in handy at some point!
