I asked Bard, Google’s AI tool now called Gemini,  about the Square Wheels® tools we’ve been selling and supporting for 30 years for generating active involvement / engagement. They work in the hands of supervisors for generating workplace improvement.

(I guess that I should write a Press Release about them like we produced about our team building game, The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine (here).)

Niote that I also asked Bard to share information about Lost Dutchman, too.
You can find that analysis here. 

Bard reported on the metaphor:

Square Wheels® are a set of organizational development tools created by Dr. Scott Simmerman in 1993. They are used to help people identify and solve problems in their organizations. The tools are based on the metaphor of a wagon with square wheels. A wagon with square wheels would not be very efficient or effective, and it would be difficult to drive. Similarly, an organization with square wheels would not be very efficient or effective.

The Square Wheels tools are used to help people identify the square wheels in their organizations. Once the square wheels have been identified, they can be replaced with round wheels. Round wheels are more efficient and effective than square wheels, and they make it easier to roll the wagon forward. Similarly, round wheels can help organizations become more efficient and effective.

The Square Wheels® tools are a powerful and effective way to improve organizations. They are easy to use and they can be used by people of all levels of experience. The tools have been used by organizations all over the world, and they have been shown to be effective in helping organizations improve their performance.

Here are some of the benefits of using Square Wheels tools:

• • They can help people identify and solve problems in their organizations.
  • They can help people develop new ideas and solutions.
  • They can help people improve communication and collaboration.
  • They can help people create a sense of ownership and empowerment.
  • They can help people improve their performance.

If you are interested in learning more about Square Wheels tools, you can visit the website of the Performance Management Company. The website has a wealth of information about the tools, including how to use them and case studies of organizations that have used them successfully.

Wow! I could not have said it any better myself. These AI tools ARE pretty amazing…

The only changes I made to the text were that the description referred to a car rather than a wagon for the metaphor and that our trademark was not referenced. One of the overall concerns about AI is the general protection of copyrights and similar for any registered intellectual property. Will the technology actually respect authorship in general or will everything simply look like it is public domain. If someone uses the “Square Wheels” metaphor in some writings of publishings they do, for example, and they do not check, are they open to problems of copyright or trademark infringement?

I should note that Square Wheels IS a registered trademark of Peformance Management Company and that maybe Bard should have picked that up. The trademark applies to discussions of the term related to issues of people and performance.

What is really intriguing is the idea I have of describing one of the images and then using one of these AI tools to “write a chapter of a book” around that theme and what is depicted in the image, linking them to teamwork, communications, collaboration, challenges and similar. Once I get a little more accustomed to these writing tools, that seems like a pretty neat challenge for me.

I also want to see what kinds of images the AI-imaging programs might generate around my themes…

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For the FUN of It!

Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement tools.
Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant who is trying to retire!! He now lives in Cuenca, Ecuador.

You can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com

Learn more about Scott at his LinkedIn site.

Square Wheels® is a registered trademark of Performance Management Company
The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine is a trademark of Performance Management Company
Square Wheels images © Performance Management Company, 1993 – 2023. All rights reserved.