The Big Lottery Win Icebreaker is a free, trainer-led team-building activity designed for corporate training, workshops, and in-house sessions. Participants imagine winning a large lottery prize and decide how they would spend the money, explaining their reasons and priorities. It is ideal for HR professionals, facilitators, and trainers running group sessions.
Big Lottery Win Icebreaker – At a Glance
- Best for: corporate training, team-building workshops, in-house sessions
- Ideal for: HR professionals, facilitators, trainers, L&D teams
- Time: 15–20 minutes (adjustable)
- What happens: participants detail what they’d do with a large lottery win
- Why it works: creates conversation about values, motivation, and priorities
- Materials needed: Digital device or pen and paper only
This activity is often used alongside our editable, trainer-led corporate training materials, designed for HR professionals and facilitators delivering in-house workshops.
How Long Does the Big Lottery Win Icebreaker Take?
The Big Lottery Win Icebreaker typically takes 15–20 minutes to run, depending on group size and discussion time.
- 15 – 20 minutes (depending on class size), but extend or shorten as necessary, such as if you are looking for fun and quick activities)
- Free to use.
- Category: Icebreaker Exercise & Creativity Building & Happiness
Who Is This Icebreaker Best Suited For?
This icebreaker is best suited for trainers, HR professionals, facilitators, and educators running group-based workshops or corporate training sessions. It works particularly well at the start of in-house training days, team-building workshops, or facilitated meetings where participants may not yet know each other.
There is nothing like a fun activity that everyone in the class tends to enjoy and take pleasure in participating in.
This game is great for getting people to start off the training session creatively and for breaking down any barriers in terms of training room atmosphere, especially when the participants are new to each other.
This game is also extremely useful as a warm-up for the life planning training package, as a way of showcasing what matters in life and how to plan accordingly.
What Is the Purpose of the Big Lottery Win Icebreaker?
The purpose of the Big Lottery Win Icebreaker is to encourage reflection, discussion, and engagement by helping participants explore values, priorities, and motivations in a relaxed group setting.
Each participant will write down what they would do if they were to win and were given 10 million dollars.
After 5 minutes of compiling their own lists, each person (or a selected number of participants if the class is big), will be asked to say to the whole group what they have chosen they would do with the money.
As the
How Do You Run the Big Lottery Win Icebreaker?
The Big Lottery Win Icebreaker is run as a simple, trainer-led exercise where participants individually reflect, then share and discuss their ideas as a group, with the trainer facilitating discussion.
1. Make sure that each person has paper and a pen or pencil.
2. Explain to everyone that they have to pretend that they have just won the lottery and the amount is 10 million dollars.
3. Inform the participants that they have 5 minutes to write down a list of the things they would do with the money.
Tell them that they can have as many things listed as they so wish, but that they have 5 minutes to complete the task.
Now, allow the participants to get started. Make it clear, though, that there are no right or wrong answers.
4. After 5 minutes, ask everyone to stop what they are writing.
5. Next, ask each person to say what is on their list and allow for discussion to occur if it does so naturally.
Depending on the number of people on the training course, ask each person to say aloud the items they listed.
6. If you wish to, as the trainer, stand at a whiteboard as people read their list and write the items on the board, and group them into logical groups that you will find naturally evolve according to:
- material items
- friends and family
- travel and luxury
- Some other categories may also emerge
7. Allow 5 minutes for the group to discuss the list. This normally will occur very easily.
What Are the Benefits of Corporate Training?
This icebreaker benefits corporate training by creating a positive atmosphere, encouraging participation, and helping groups feel relaxed and engaged from the start.
This is a fun activity that very quickly and easily creates a positive mood.
This game works and is suitable for most training course materials because it is a great activity for getting the class to feel relaxed and setting the tone for a fun training day.
This game also ties in nicely with the developing discussion around material happiness and mindfulness if you are teaching these subjects.
The lottery game concept is used, in fact, in many areas related to education
Overall, this is an extremely easy game to organize, requires no real props apart from the pen and paper, and also seems to excite participants. Looking for more icebreaker activities?
