Two Truths and a Lie
Also known as: Two Facts and a Fib, Truths and a Tall Tale
Two Truths and a Lie invites teammates to share two real facts and one crafted fib, sparking playful curiosity and sharper listening in minutes.
Quick Overview
Introduction
Two Truths and a Lie invites participants to share three statements while everyone else hunts for the single fabrication. The game accelerates rapport by balancing playful suspense with authentic storytelling and attentive listening. Because each round uses the same structure, even shy voices can participate without overthinking or preparing slides. Facilitators can flex the prompts to surface project insights, shared hobbies, or onboarding context in under thirty minutes.
Key Features
- Low-prep storytelling structure keeps Two Truths and a Lie accessible for spontaneous kickoff moments.
- Psychology-backed guessing loop strengthens attention and empathetic listening in hybrid teams.
- Repeatable format scales Two Truths and a Lie across cohorts without losing energy or novelty.
Ideal For
Two Truths and a Lie shines during new hire orientations, project kickoffs, and leadership offsites where participants need quick rapport plus a reason to remember names. It also supports recurring all-hands check-ins by giving hybrid teams a humanizing ritual before diving into analytics.
What Makes It Unique
Unlike generic icebreaker lists, Two Truths and a Lie combines calibrated vulnerability and playful deception, producing memorable snapshots that invite follow-up conversations long after the guessing ends.
Game Video
How to Play
Preparation
5 minutes- 1Ask participants to prepare two authentic truths and one believable lie related to personal history, professional wins, or surprising hobbies.
- 2Set expectations about respectful storytelling, clarifying that fabrications should stay lighthearted and culturally sensitive.
- 3Share optional prompt cards or slide templates via chat for anyone who needs structure, and invite them to drop statements into the queue if time is tight.
Game Flow
15-30 minutes- 1Introduce the first participant and remind the group to listen actively without interrupting.
- 2Have the speaker deliver all three statements in any order while others jot quick notes.
- 3Invite the group to discuss guesses for ninety seconds, encouraging quieter members to contribute before voting.
- 4Collect final votes simultaneously using colored cards, chat polls, or emoji reactions to keep suspense high.
- 5Ask the speaker to reveal the lie, share short backstories for each truth, and hand off to the next participant.
Wrap Up
5 minutes- 1Invite everyone to share one standout truth they want to explore later, reinforcing follow-up conversations.
- 2Highlight observed themes such as shared hobbies or complementary skills and link them to upcoming collaboration needs.
- 3Close by scheduling optional coffee chats or pairing people to convert newly surfaced interests into action.
Host Script
Questions & Examples
Professional kickoff prompts
- •Share two career milestones and one fabricated award.
- •Offer two software tools you genuinely love and one you pretend to like.
- •List two client industries you have served and one you have never touched.
Hybrid culture prompts
- •Mention two remote work rituals you rely on and one myth about your routine.
- •Reveal two cities you have dialed in from and one you dream about but never visited.
- •Name two Slack emojis you overuse and one you secretly mute.
Student orientation prompts
- •Offer two study hacks that work and one legendary shortcut that never happened.
- •List two campus clubs you joined and one you still want to explore.
- •Share two surprising electives you passed and one rumor about your major.
Virtual Version (for Zoom/Teams)
Two Truths and a Lie transitions smoothly to video calls because the speaking order, voting, and reveal flow map onto chat, polls, and breakout rooms.
- •Use a collaborative board like Miro to pin each trio of statements for visual memory.
- •Trigger simultaneous votes with built-in poll features to preserve suspense.
- •Rotate spotlight videos so every speaker gets equal screen time.
- •Record follow-up actions in a shared doc immediately after each reveal.
Tips & Variations
Pro Tips
- ✓Model the perfect balance of plausible truths and a playful lie before participants begin.
- ✓Provide a prompt list to support teammates who struggle to improvise under pressure.
- ✓Track which statements spark curiosity so you can connect people afterward.
- ✓Limit time per round to sustain momentum and prevent over-analysis.
Variations
Topic-Focused Edition
Ask each participant to craft statements around a strategic theme, such as customer insights or sustainability habits.
Speed Guessing Relay
Split into small groups and run rapid-fire rounds with 60-second timeboxes before rotating storytellers.
Common Pitfalls
- ✗Allowing overly exaggerated lies that break trust or feel boastful.
- ✗Letting dominant voices over-explain guesses, which sidelines quieter participants.
- ✗Skipping the debrief that converts fun facts into future collaboration points.
- ✗Forgetting to brief cultural norms, leading to awkward or insensitive statements.
Safety & Inclusivity Notes
- •Invite participants to skip or edit any prompt that feels too revealing to protect psychological safety.
- •Encourage culturally aware examples and clarify that stereotypes are off-limits.
- •Remind everyone that personal anecdotes stay within the group unless consent is given.
- •Provide a gentle opt-out pathway so anyone can observe without pressure.
Why This Game Works
Two Truths and a Lie works because it activates rapid self-disclosure and curiosity loops, giving teams a neurologically rewarding burst of oxytocin and dopamine. The alternating reveal-and-guess structure balances risk and safety, so people open up without feeling exposed. In hybrid settings, this rhythm counteracts screen fatigue by forcing sustained attention and shared laughter.
Psychological Principles
Social Penetration Theory
Irwin Altman & Dalmas Taylor
Social Penetration Theory explains how relationships deepen through reciprocal layers of self-disclosure, moving from facts to feelings.
Application in Game
Two Truths and a Lie structures incremental disclosure-participants reveal surprising truths beside a harmless deception, letting colleagues learn novel layers while staying in control of boundaries.
Psychological Safety
Amy C. Edmondson
Psychological safety describes a shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking and candid participation.
Application in Game
Because Two Truths and a Lie rewards gentle vulnerability without punishment, it signals that experimentation with identity stories is welcomed, reinforcing norms that fuel learning behaviors.
Reciprocity Principle
Robert B. Cialdini
The reciprocity principle states that people feel compelled to return favors, gifts, or disclosures to maintain social balance.
Application in Game
Each truthful revelation in Two Truths and a Lie nudges others to match the openness and playfulness, creating a collective momentum that keeps the activity lively and fair.
Self-Determination Theory
Edward L. Deci & Richard M. Ryan
Self-Determination Theory argues that autonomy, competence, and relatedness drive intrinsic motivation and sustained engagement.
Application in Game
Two Truths and a Lie lets players autonomously curate stories, demonstrate competence in deduction, and build relatedness, keeping motivation high without external rewards.
Scientific Evidence
Meta-analysis shows reciprocal self-disclosure increases perceived closeness by 32%, sustaining trust beyond the session.
Teams reporting high psychological safety demonstrate 35% more learning behaviors after structured dialogue games.
Team-building interventions centered on interpersonal exchange raise performance by 20% across 60 independent samples.
Measurable Outcomes
Short quiz on personal statements immediately after play
Timeframe: Post-session
Edmondson seven-item survey
Timeframe: One week follow-up
Attendance plus verbal contribution tracking
Timeframe: 30 days post-activity
Success Stories
Startup Onboarding Guess-Off
Background
A 65-person Series B fintech startup in Singapore struggled to integrate remote hires into its product squads. The L&D partner designed a culture week where each pod began with Two Truths and a Lie, using prompts tied to personal milestones and product curiosities. Facilitators collected statements via a micro-form and encouraged employees to pick one unexpected industry experience, one personal hobby, and one fabricated twist.
Challenge
Prior to the intervention, new engineers reported feeling like observers during sprint reviews, and Net Promoter Scores for orientation events hovered at 48. Hybrid timing meant APAC and EMEA teams rarely overlapped informally, so unscheduled bonding never happened. Managers feared new joiners would take three to four weeks before voicing dissent or proposing features, slowing experimentation in a market with aggressive compliance timelines.
Solution
The team scheduled Two Truths and a Lie during day-one coffee chats. Each pod of eight mixed senior and junior members, rotated facilitators, and allocated three minutes per participant. Guessing ballots were submitted in Slack using emoji reactions, and facilitators highlighted follow-up questions for any true statement aligned with company values or customer stories. After the reveal, players shared a 60-second reflection linking their truths to current projects.
Results
Orientation NPS jumped to 71, and post-program surveys showed 84% of new hires felt comfortable challenging assumptions within two weeks. Meeting analytics indicated a 19% increase in unique voices during sprint demos. Qualitative comments cited the game as the moment they discovered shared passions like triathlons and climate tech, making cross-team pairings less awkward.
University Tutor Kickoff Mystery
Background
A UK university's peer tutoring center convened 42 student mentors from diverse faculties to prepare for exam season. The director used Two Truths and a Lie to surface hidden skills and cross-disciplinary links. Participants submitted their statements around academic hacks, part-time roles, and fictional achievements so everyone stayed within the academic tone while injecting humor.
Challenge
Mentors historically remained siloed within their disciplines, causing scheduling gaps when students sought interdisciplinary help. Surveys revealed mentors felt invisible outside their subject niche, and session pairing took an average of six days due to limited trust in informal referrals.
Solution
Two Truths and a Lie launched the training day. Facilitators arranged chairs in concentric circles, pairing humanities and STEM mentors. After each guessing round, pairs spent two minutes mapping how a revealed truth could support collaborative tutoring plans. Facilitators recorded matches on a shared whiteboard, then rotated pairs four times to maximize overlap. The lie piece injected levity, encouraging mentors to test critical thinking and connect facts with campus myths.
Results
Referral turnaround dropped to three days during midterms, and 76% of mentors logged at least one cross-faculty co-session by semester's end. Follow-up interviews showed mentors remembered four peer specialties on average, compared with two the prior year. Student satisfaction surveys cited the kickoff as a reason tutors felt approachable and intellectually curious.
What Users Say
"Two Truths and a Lie turned our cautious onboarding cohort into a lively crew within half an hour. The mix of truthful milestones and cheeky fabrications kept attention high, and by the next morning people were swapping coffee chats to learn more about genuine passions."
Maya Chen
Director of People Development
Use Case: Global onboarding week
"I run leadership intensives, and this game remains the fastest way to expose hidden capabilities without forcing vulnerability. Our senior executives still reference the truths they learned months later, and it set a confident tone for the rest of the retreat."
Peter Gallagher
Executive Coach
Use Case: Executive retreat warm-up
"We adapted Two Truths and a Lie for a distributed volunteer network, and participation stayed above 95%. The rhythm of guessing together gave everyone permission to speak early, so our planning workshop began with collaborative energy instead of awkward silence."
Lena Morales
Program Coordinator
Use Case: Virtual non-profit summit
Frequently Asked Questions
Share a prompt sheet with categories like travel, hobbies, or work projects and encourage them to tweak minor details from true stories. Co-create with a buddy if they need help.
Rotate themes each month, invite guests to contribute prompts, or switch to variations such as data-only truths so returning players still uncover new angles.
Yes. Break into pods of six to eight, assign timekeepers, and reconvene to spotlight the funniest or most revealing truths so the wider group stays engaged.