métro is a team communications simulation based on a journey across Paris on the Metro.
Although the authors have travelled on the Paris Métro please be reassured - the story line is purely fictitious.
What Makes métro Exceptional?
métro is a communication, teamwork and planning diagnostic and improvement tool disguised as a puzzle.
Participants are given information which is unfamiliar to them and forms a small part of an overall picture. The information comes on cards and shows between five and seven sequential Paris Métro stations from an incomplete system.
Unlike traditional team exercises that allow participants to fall back on visual data and familiar patterns, métro deliberately restricts the most efficient communication channel (visual) and forces teams to navigate four critical challenges simultaneously:
- Information asymmetry: Each person holds unique, critical data
- Unfamiliar terminology: Station names and route systems are outside normal vocabulary
- Time pressure: 15 minutes creates authentic workplace stress
- Coordination complexity: Multiple interdependencies must be managed
The result?
Teams quickly reveal their natural communication patterns, power dynamics, and problem-solving approaches. You’ll observe:
- Who emerges as coordinator vs. who tries to dominate
- How the team handles quiet members with critical information
- Whether they plan before acting or dive straight in
- How they manage frustration and confusion
métro is a team communications and planning simulation based on a journey across Paris on the Metro.
Each team is given fragmented and unfamiliar data (playing cards illustrating segments of the Paris underground system) with both a time constraint and restricted communication modes so and has to work hard to find ways around those limitations that intentionally make planning, cooperation and effective communication difficult in order to provoke new powerful insights. métro is design to make participants evaluate their own approach to communication, planning and teamwork and often produces improvements for the whole team.
The métro Complete Kit includes:
• 1 x Facilitator Guide
• 12 x Participant Workbooks (additional booklets can be purchased if required)
• 3 x Packs of Cards (additional cards sets can be purchased if required)
All presented in a handy carry case for your convenience.
Trainer Guide
• Use in training programmes and team meetings
• Use as an opening icebreaker or energy booster after any break
• Produces lessons particularly relevant to communications, team-working and planning
• Total duration typically 30 minutes
• Optimal team size per deck of cards is between 4 and 7. With three desks of card per pack, you can easily run this with 12-21 people. (While with multiple packs any group size is possible)
