Everyone is a Liar (Two truths and one lie)
Starting a meeting or after a break in a group where participants don't know each other or don't know much about each other
Goal
To help everyone to learn names and personal/professional information
Materials
Instructions
Before
Setting: comfortable and informal seating
During
Demonstration (Steps 1-3):
1. Facilitator writes three statements about herself/ himself on flipchart. Two statements are true, and one is a lie. Example:
- I have been teaching for 10 years.
- I have a pet cat called, "Mini"
- I lived in Rome for a year.
2. Invite participants to ask "lie detector" questions to get information in order to determine which statement is false. For example:
- Teaching - Where have you taught? What have you taught? What year did you start?
- Pet - How old is Mini? What does Mini eat? Where do you keep Mini?
- Rome - Where did you live in Rome? What language was spoken in Rome?
3. Participants vote on which statement is a lie. Reveal which are truths and which are lies.
4. Place participants in small groups (3 or 4 works well). Small groups repeat steps 1 - 3, individuals write down their truths and lie on paper first, then share one by one while others ask questions, vote on which statement is a lie.
5. Have participants introduce each other to the large group.
After
Usual or Expected Outcomes: People know each other's names and some personal aspects of their lives
Potential pitfalls: groups who don't like the idea of "lying" have a difficult time with this.
Tips to apply this method online:
1. Besides the online conference tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams etc, it is good to use with online collaborative whiteboard platforms such as Miro, MURAL, etc...
2. Write on online collaborative whiteboard the statements
3. For participants more than 6 persons, better to use "Breakout Rooms" function of online conference tools
Comments (1)
Ulla Wyckoff Tomlinson
see alternative instructions under "2 truths & one lie"