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Communication Icebreaker Truth & Lies (QAA 1,2,5,6,7)

Objective:

Idea generation
Understanding processes and procedure
With opportunities to:

  1. Review the session, understand the concept or steps covered in an interactive way.
  2. Evidence the power of group work as more ideas are created through team work
  3. Understand team dynamics and how teams come together to achieve a goal
  4. Understand the power and necessity for review and reflection of a task or situation.

Overview:

There are times when people’s energy is low during workshops, particular after a long lecture or after a break. After lunch time workshop participants tend to be tired while they are still digesting. It’s fast and fun ways to get participants refocused on the workshop (and topic).  This task can help the group bond or develop their subject knowledge through a “truth and lies” approach to multiple choice statements (right or wrong).

Activity:

  1. Participants write on cards / note pads two truths about themselves and one lie.
  2. The participants then walk around sharing with one another their three statements – during this participants should reveal which of the statement is a lie. During this sharing it is the goal of the participants to:
            a)    Convince others that your lie is true
            b)    Guess the correct lie of the other participants
  3. The participants gather back together in a circle and the first person read aloud their statement to remind everyone.
  4. The group then tries to guess which of the three statements is not true – at the end of each statement ask for a vote through a show of hands. ‘Who thinks this statement is true?’ Raise your hands.
  5. The participant then reveals says which of the statements is untrue.

    Notes:
    •    For large groups (30+), it is best to split into smaller group sizes.
    •    Give example of statements and remind people that they should use short statements.

    This task can be undertaken as a lively energiser, or as a subject based/ discipline focused activity.  By providing a slightly longer time for the students to prepare, the statements can be about a revision topic, or a new topic that is being studied.  It is also possible to pre-prepare a set of two piles of statements and invite the students to take them, research them (this can be for the following week if more complex subject related topics) and convince others of their position.  This could be delivered as a panel in front of the group, who are acting as audience. Inspiration for this type of extension can come from the BBC TV format “Would I lie to you?” but requires subject knowledge to make the truths and lies work and therefore the individual panellists can benefit from working in advance as a team to prepare their statements and answers.  By creating teams, with a panel spokespeople, audience engagement is high.

Skill Development:

It is important to ensure that the student groups recognise that the potential of subtle communication skills deployed in this task (such as empathy; humour; rapport).  Discussing the challenge, and what elements were memorable and effective, can highlight how individuals create effective communication.  Whilst they are opportunities to develop a range of communication skills through practice, it is important to look for “future lessons” from this task to build an understanding of the transferable skills that are being developed.  This might include discussion of Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation; Interpersonal Skills; Communication; Reflection and Action; Team Building and creative thinking skills.  It could be helpful to write up these titles and invite comments on post-its under each title to draw out experiences and feelings. Explore these comments collectively to draw together themes and learning from the whole group.

Resources:

Each participant needs a note pad/card and pen/pencil
If you wish to use this approach to introduce a new topic, or topic extension, then you may wish to pre-prepare the statements for the students in advance for the session – or to issue in the session in advance for learners to research and prepare for the next week panel task.

References:

Author / Attribution

This guide was produced by EntEv.