Why Ownership Beats Skills: Rolling Forward with Square Wheels^® and Mining Gold with The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine teambuilding

Let’s cut right to the chase:

• “Nobody ever washes a rental car.”

If you want to build a high-performing team, skills alone won’t get you there. Decades of real-world experience say the same thing: Ownership is the secret to having an involved and engaged workforce.. People take care of what they feel is theirs, and that’s as true in the workplace as it is in the parking lot.

So, for those of us in the business of facilitation and organizational consulting, the question isn’t just “How do we build skills?” but “How do we build ownership?” That’s where two of the most powerful tools in the toolbox come in to play: the Square Wheels facilitation process and the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine team building game. Both of these are proven, world-class tools for involving and engaging people for workplace improvement.

Let’s roll up our sleeves and see how these can transform involvement into real, sustainable engagement.

Skills Are Table Stakes – Ownership Wins the Game

Luis Peralta’s Entrepreneur article makes it clear: “Technical skills alone are insufficient for building high-performing teams. What leaders should really look for is an ownership mindset. Employees with an ownership mindset take initiative, act in the best interest of the business, treat challenges as their own to solve and care deeply about outcomes.”

Skills are important, but they’re not enough to build a strong, high-performing team. What truly sets great teams apart is a sense of ownership and accountability. Anyone can hire for technical chops, but the teams that consistently outperform are those where people feel responsible for the outcome – not just their piece of the puzzle, but the whole picture.

I’ve been saying this for decades:

“Yeah, my real thinking is that ownership involvement and real engagement around the issue and the opportunity are the keys to helping people change their behavior.”

Ownership is the difference between compliance and commitment. It’s the difference between a team that does what’s asked and a team that goes the extra mile. And as facilitators, our job is to create the conditions where that ownership can take root and grow.

Square Wheels: Making the Case for Involvement

Imagine a team pushing and pulling a wagon with square wheels. It’s moving, but it’s clunky, slow, and everyone’s frustrated. Sound familiar? That’s the reality in many organizations-people working hard but not smart, because they don’t feel empowered to change the process.

Here’s where the Square Wheels facilitation process shines:

• Safe space for candor: The cartoon opens the door for honest conversation without any blame frame, just “Hey, what’s making our ride so rough?” and “What should we be doing differently.”

• Ownership of solutions: When teams identify their own “Square Wheels” and brainstorm “round wheels possibilities,” they own both the problems and the fixes. The gap creates cognitive dissonance, which is generally motivating to close them.

• Engagement through involvement: People support what they help create. When they see their ideas in action, commitment follows. It is pretty straightforward. 

My approach is simple but profound:

“Instead of standing there and telling people what their goals should be and why their organization and their leadership is focused on such things, they need to more actively involve and engage the people-in the act of identifying issues and opportunities.”

This is the magic of the Square Wheels^® process. You’re not telling people what’s wrong or how to fix it. You’re inviting them to see the issues, name them, and own the solutions. That’s where real engagement starts.

The Power of the Image and Metaphor

Why a image? Because it’s safe. It’s non-threatening. It gives people permission to laugh at the absurdity of their situation-and then do something about it. As Scott likes to say,

“The view from the front IS different than the view at the back.”

In a typical Square Wheels session, you’ll see people light up as they recognize themselves in the cartoon. The laughter breaks the ice, and suddenly it’s okay to talk about what’s not working. That’s when the real work begins.

And, you are actually working effectively to address the un-engagement experienced by half of your workforce. By generating their active participation with SWs, you help accomplish what I call DIS-un-engagement with their involvement on addressing perceived workplace issues. We also engage the Spectator Sheep that we so commonly experience.

Insight! And the need for Perspective…

Let’s also briefly mention this critical need for perspective. You cannot see any of The Big Picture if all you do is push the wagon. Similarly, if your only view is looking ahead, you will surely miss issues and opportunities about what is really happening. Your move toward involving and engaging and innovating must involve perspective.

Let me illustrate:

Take the time to occasionally step back and LOOK.

From Insight to Action

But it doesn’t stop with insight. The real power comes when teams move from talking about SWs to identifying round wheels, those often practicel actionable solutions that they can implement. And because the ideas come from the team, not from the top, there’s a sense of ownership from the start.

“Simply put, you cannot expect the people to support you to buy into ideas for improvement and change unless they have some ownership involvement in generating those ideas or in putting together an implementation plan.”

This is where engagement becomes sustainable. People aren’t just following orders – they’re helping and driving the desired changes.

The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine: Turning Insight into Action

If Square Wheels is about surfacing issues and building ownership of possible solutions, the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine team building game is about putting those lessons into practice. It’s one thing to talk about ownership and collaboration; it’s another to experience it in real time.

Lost Dutchman’s puts teams in a simulated adventure, where their choices directly impact results-not just for themselves, but for the whole group. The goal is simple: maximize the gold mined and return successfully to the starting point. But the path to success is anything but straightforward and there are choices to be made. And the game was created to be, “an excuse to do a debriefing” around real issues and opportunities.

Collaboration Over Competition

One of the most powerful lessons from the game is that collaboration beats competition. Teams quickly see that hoarding resources and information leads to less gold for everyone, they measurable sub-optimize overall results. Shared ownership of the goal drives better results.

“On the left, we have typical organizational reality – leaders pulling and people pushing and not much alignment, engagement or communications. On the right, we have people actively involved in making improvements to the situation, with the obvious support of the lead manager and others. Taking time to be involved generates engagement, can help to implement better processes, and can generate peer support and even more organizational successes down the road.”

The reality and the perception of reality

The debrief is where the magic happens. Teams reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and-most importantly-why. The facilitator’s job is to connect the dots between the game and the real world and then involve participants in looking forward and making different choices. Collaboration is a choice.

Debriefing: The Gold Mine of Learning

The debrief isn’t just a recap of what played out; it’s a facilitated engaging discussion of real issues and opportunities. It is where learning gets embedded. Some favorite quotes come out here:

• “Put a good person in a bad system and the bad system wins, no contest.”

• “A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.”

• “One wheely good idea can lead to more wheely good ideas.”

These aren’t just clever lines but anchors for deeper consideration and discussion. Why did some teams collaborate while others competed? What systems or mindsets got in the way? How can we apply these insights back at work?

The workshops often end with this challenge like this:

“Let’s get out of the ditch and up on the road. What can we choose to do differently to mine more gold?”

It’s a call to action-not just to identify problems, but to own the solutions and move forward together.

Facilitator’s PlayBook: Marrying Square Wheels and Lost Dutchman’s

So how do you, as a facilitation professional, use these tools together for maximum impact? Here’s a proven approach:

1. Start rolling with Square Wheels

• Use the cartoon to surface frustrations safely. No blame, just “Hey, this wheel’s square-let’s fix it.”

• Have teams sketch their own square wheels. Ownership begins with articulation.

• Brainstorm round wheels-solutions that are already within reach.

2. Shift to Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine

• Run the simulation. Let teams compete, then help them discover that collaboration leads to more gold for everyone. The goal is, “To mine as much Gold as WE can!”

• Use the debrief to explore participant ideas about what stopped teams from sharing resources and what could have been done differently to make real workplace improvements for engagement and collaboration.

3. Connect the Dots – The same metaphors appear in both tools!

• Link Dutchman’s lessons back to the Square Wheels tools and discussions about issues and opportunities. “What can we choose to do differently?”

• Use visual metaphors to make the learning stick. People remember stories and images long after the session ends. (I have had people review my SWs sessions 25 years later!)

4. Build Accountability

• Use the SayDoCo (Say-Do-Coach) model to cement accountability:

  • Say: “What will you do to round this Square Wheel?” What are some possibilities and what can you choose to do differently. Who else can help and support and what do you need from me?

  • Do: Set 5-day and 30-day check-ins or as timely as makes good sense to get and keep things improving.

  • Coach: Nudge, don’t nag. Support continuous continuous incremental improvement.

  • Help them manage personal and workplace roadblocks. Some ideas are here.

Why This Combination of SWs and Dutchman Works so well

• Cognitive dissonance → action: Recognizing gaps between current (square) and ideal (round) possibilities fuels motivation to implement change.

• Safe experimentation: Dutchman’s lets teams fail forward without real-world stakes. The discussions focus on issues and possibilities, and they ask for commitment to do things differently.

• Metaphors stick: Years later, clients still say, “Remember that Square Wheels we fixed?”

• Content Overlap: The same metaphors are built into both tools:

This sums it up perfectly:

“People do not take care of things very well unless they have a feeling of ownership about them.”

Ownership isn’t a program but a mindset. And mindset shifts require more than slideshows. They need kinesthetic experiences that challenge, engage, and-dare I say-entertain?

Scott Simmerman’s Favorite Quotes for Facilitators

No Simmerman-inspired session is complete without a few of his classic quotes. Here are some gems to weave into your facilitation:

• “Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, falls the shadow.” (T.S. Eliot, often used by Scott)

• “The First Rule of Holes: When you’re in one, stop digging.”

• “Nothing made sense, and neither did everything else.” (Joseph Heller, Closing Time, a Simmerman favorite)

• “Put a good person in a bad system and the bad system wins, no contest.” (W. Edwards Deming, used in both Square Wheels and Dutchman’s debriefs)

• “A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.” (John Le Carré, a Simmerman staple)

• “One wheely good idea can lead to more wheely good ideas.”

• “Caterpillars can fly if they just lighten up.”

• “The Round Wheels of Today become the Square Wheels of Tomorrow. ” (This is about the need for continuous continuous improvement.)

Use these to spark reflection, laughter, and action. They’re more than quips-they’re conversation starters that invite people to see things differently.

Practical Tips for Facilitators

• Frame the session with ownership: Set the expectation that everyone’s voice matters, and that the goal is to leave with actionable ideas they own and implement for personal growth and organizational development.

• Use visuals and metaphors: Cartoons and games lower defenses and make it safe to talk about tough issues. They also make the learning lessons memorable. Help shift perspectives.

• Encourage peer-to-peer coaching: Ownership sticks when people hold each other accountable.

• Celebrate small wins: Every round wheel implemented is a step toward a smoother ride.

Final Thought: For the FUN of It!

Ownership isn’t about titles or pay grades-it’s about involvement, engagement, and pride in the outcome. Let me say:

“I hope you like these cartoons and quips and I also hope that you truly understand what it takes to actively involve and engage people in their journey forward.”

So, dust off those Square Wheels posters and fire up Lost Dutchman’s. The gold (and the round wheels) are waiting. When people own the journey, they push harder, pull smarter, and celebrate together when the wheels finally roll smooth.

Keep facilitating the fu and the active ownership.

And, if you want to simply connect with me to kick the tires, Just DO It!
(I went to The University of North Carolina, just like Michael!)

P.S. For those keeping score: Over 500,000 people have mined gold with Dutchman’s. How’s that for proof of concept?