icebreakers · whole group · offline + online
Two Truths and a Lie.folder
Three statements, one is false, all eyes closed before the vote — the classic icebreaker, rebuilt so nobody gets embarrassed in a professional room.
// kit v2: a stage-ready HTML deck (presenter drawer, run-of-show timer, built-in QR codes) · poker-spec print-and-cut cards with backs and blanks · an A3 activity poster · manuals in A4 and US Letter with bookmarks · three license tiers (CC BY free / single event / organization).
The game everyone knows, with two guardrails most versions skip: every statement must be a public work fact — checkable, nothing about health, family or finances — and the vote happens eyes-closed, so wrong guesses stay private. The result is an icebreaker that senior managers and new hires can both survive.
The game needs a circle of chairs and nothing else. The folder carries the guardrails — the boundary rule, the eyes-closed script, a first-go-first demonstration, rescues for the three classic failure modes — plus a full teaching kit: a slide deck for the screen, a participant workbook, the one-minute pre/post answer sheet, and a plain-language license.
the run sheet
// this is the guide file, word for word — read it here, run from it here. the .md at the bottom of the page is the same text, offline.
Folder:
two-truths· Category: icebreakers · 8–20 people · 15 min · offline + online · no props · assessment-typeLicense: CC BY 4.0
The classic getting-to-know-you game, rebuilt with two guardrails that make it safe for professional rooms: every statement must be a public fact (work-relevant, checkable), and the group votes eyes closed — no public guessing that embarrasses anyone.
Objectives
By the end of the activity, participants will have:
- Learned three checkable facts about every colleague in the room.
- Watched their own first impressions get beaten by at least one lie.
- Practiced the boundary rule: personal life stays out unless offered.
Setup
Space: a circle of chairs, or one shared video call. Nothing else.
Materials for the game: none. The folder adds printable measure materials — an answer sheet, a workbook and a slide deck — none of which the circle itself needs. The boundary rule and the eyes-closed script live in this run sheet.
Grouping rule: the whole group together. Over 12 people, split into two circles and alternate rounds.
The boundary rule — say it out loud: "All three statements are public facts about your work life: projects, skills, first jobs, countries worked in. Nothing about health, family or finances unless you offer it."
Minute-by-minute script
| Time | Phase | Facilitator does | Participants do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–2 | Frame + boundary rule | State the rule above. "The goal is not to fool people — it's to learn three facts about everyone." | Listen |
| 2–4 | You go first | Model it: your two truths and one lie, all work-facts | Guess you, calibrate |
| 4–12 | Rounds | Each speaker: 3 statements, then "eyes closed — raise hands for A, B or C" | Speak, vote, reveal, one line of story |
| 12–14 | The surprise tally | "Whose lie fooled the most people? Whose truth did nobody believe?" | Laugh, point |
| 14–15 | Bridge | "Remember one fact per person — you'll need it in the debrief." | Transition |
For a 15-minute energizer, stop here and run the light debrief from two-truths-debrief.md (5 minutes). For a deeper session, chain directly into another folder.
Known failure modes & rescues
- Someone's lie is too good. A senior manager claims they "never worked in sales" — the room cannot recover. Rescue: after the reveal, ask them for the one-line true story behind a truth. The story matters more than the score.
- A statement crosses the privacy line. Rescue: cut in before the vote — "public facts only — want to swap that one?" Give an easy exit, no lecture.
- Big group, dead time. Waiting 40 seconds per person bores the room. Rescue: split into two circles at 12+ people, or switch to "table rounds" of 4 with a one-minute timer.
Variations
- Two truths about the project, one lie: for teams that already know each other — statements must be about the current project's history. The debrief writes itself.
- Online: statements in chat, vote with emoji reactions (A/B/C), reveal on mic. Add a 20-second timer per speaker.
- Reverse round: after everyone has gone, each person must recall one fact they learned about someone else. Recall, not score, is the goal.
the debrief sheet
// the debrief questions, in full — the .md version prints on one page for the room.
6 questions, 3 failure modes, one rule: recall beats cleverness.
Use with
two-truths-guide.md. Light debrief runs 5 min — or use it to chain into a deeper folder.
How to run this debrief
- Keep it light — this is an icebreaker, not a tribunal. Five minutes, standing if possible.
- The goal is recall, not scores. Nobody won; everybody learned.
The 6 questions
1. The fact that stuck.
"Name one fact you learned about someone today — their name, then the fact."
→ Recall test. If the room can do this, the icebreaker worked.
2. The lie that fooled you.
"Which lie fooled you, and what made it believable?"
→ Points at how stereotypes fill information gaps. Keep it playful.
3. The truth nobody believed.
"Whose truth did the room refuse to believe? What does that say about our first impressions?"
→ The strongest single question in this debrief. Handle it with humor, not analysis.
4. The one you wanted to ask.
"Which statement made you want to ask a follow-up question? Ask it now."
→ Converts facts into conversations. This is where an icebreaker becomes a relationship.
5. The line we held.
"We kept every statement to public work facts. Was that boundary comfortable? Would you have shared more or less without it?"
→ Meta question — it makes the safety rule visible so it can be reused in future sessions.
6. The person behind the badge.
"Did anyone's three statements change how you'll work with them this week? One sentence."
→ Transfer question. Even "I'll ask Dana about her time in Japan instead of assuming" counts.
3 known failure modes of the debrief itself
- The debrief turns into scoring. People start ranking who fooled whom.
Rescue: cut it early — "scoreboard's closed. Question 1: name a fact, not a winner."
- One person becomes the exhibit. The room keeps circling one surprising revelation.
Rescue: move to question 4 and redirect the curiosity to someone else's statement.
- Silence on question 6. Nobody connects the game to actual work.
Rescue: answer it yourself first — model one concrete sentence about how you'll treat someone differently this week.
This folder carries a one-minute pre/post measure — two-truths-assessment.json, printed on the answer sheet or built live: four rows, filled before the circle and after this debrief, reported room-level only. The recall delta is the scoreboard that matters — nobody is graded.
who it's for · what it leaves behind
Who is the Two Truths and a Lie activity for?
Facilitators who need a first-hour icebreaker that respects professional boundaries — kickoffs, all-hands, cross-company workshops. It works from 8 to 20 people, runs online with chat-and-emoji voting, and finishes in fifteen minutes including a light debrief.
How is this different from the version everyone already knows?
Two guardrails: statements are limited to public work facts — checkable, nothing about health, family or finances unless offered — and voting happens eyes-closed, so nobody is publicly wrong about a colleague. The run sheet also includes the rescues for the three classic failure modes: the too-good lie, the boundary cross, and dead time in big groups.
What results does it produce?
Every participant leaves with three checkable facts about every colleague in the room, and the group has watched at least one first impression get beaten by a lie. The folder also carries a one-minute pre/post measure — four rows on recall and first impressions, reported room-level only. Nobody is graded.
Can my AI agent use this folder?
Yes. Every folder ships a SKILL.md skill file: frontmatter for matching, plus runnable prep commands — pull the guide, the debrief and the answer sheet with three curl commands. The three-step workflow (discover, install, run) lives on the skills page, every folder ships a one-command zip bundle, and the machine index is skills.json.
Is it really free?
Yes — CC BY 4.0, no account, no email wall inside a folder. Download it, run it, copy it, rebrand it for your own workshop. Attribution keeps everything free.
make it live
The paper answer sheet is built for a circle of chairs and one pen. If you want the digital version — the same 4 rows as a live pre/post form, each person's before/after delta computed automatically — two ways:
for AI agents
$ formlm-cli smart generate --input "Pre/post measure for the Two Truths and a Lie icebreaker: 4 Likert items (1-5) on colleague knowledge, first impressions (reverse-scored), follow-up curiosity and self-disclosure ease — the same 4 items before the circle and after the light debrief, so each participant's delta is computed automatically. Anonymous, room-level reporting, 1 minute"
Step 4 of the agent workflow: npm install -g @formlm/cli, log in once, and the prep above runs itself. The form and its data live in your own workspace.
— or, with a mouse —
Open the free pre/post training quiz template on FormLM
and paste the 4 items from two-truths-assessment.json — the template already runs the before/after comparison and scores it.
// optional, not required — the paper version in this folder is complete on its own. free account on their side.
put it on the wall
The folder ships a single-file HTML deck that presents full-screen from one laptop. To run the activity on the room's big screen — submissions land on the wall in real time, the countdown and the spotlight stay in your hands, and the whole room joins with one scan — the scan-and-project companion is QRCard-AI:
See the trainer live-screen mode on QRCard-AI — one QR code on the wall, participants join and follow from their own seats.
// optional, not required — the deck in this folder already runs full-screen on a single laptop.
take this folder with you
// every file downloads as a plain file. no account, no email wall inside a folder.