Summary: Douglas McGregor (Theory Y) would LOVE Square Wheels. He would readily conclude that Square Wheels metaphors and tools provide a practical visual language for bringing this management style to life.
I’ve asked Perplexity a few times for how famous organizational development people (and even some comedians like Lenny Bruce!) would react to my Square Wheels images about how things really work in most organizations. My readings of his works is that Douglas McGregor would see a LOT of connections between his Theory Y approach to managing people — and my AI backed me up. There are many natural connections between his Theory Y management style and facilitating engagement and innovation with my tools.
Here is what Perplexity AI said, along with a lot of edits from me. Note that i have over 800 blog posts around themes of leadership, team building, organizational development and themes of managing and leading people so AI knows me and my Square Wheels very well.
What Douglas McGregor Might Say About Square Wheels and Motivation
Douglas McGregor, whose 1960 book The Human Side of Enterprise reshaped how leaders think about people and performance, argued that a manager’s underlying beliefs about employees directly shape behavior, culture, and results. His Theory X / Theory Y framework remains a foundational lens for understanding management behavior and engagement and is perhaps even more relevant today than when he wrote it so many years ago.
Now imagine McGregor encountering my Square Wheels metaphor: a wagon rolling along on square wheels while a cargo of round wheels already in the wagon, representing better ways of doing things. Imaging him talking about this reality with a group of very senior managers, pushing them to see the missed opportunities and ideas.
This simple image, created to spark reflection about workplace reality and improvement, would have thrilled McGregor. It visually captures the central tensions he wrote about, that gap between what is and what could be, that gap between managerial control and human potential. (And he would have LOVED the idea of Spectator Sheep, those uninvolved and unengaged stopped away from the wagon with a very different perspective.)
Spectator Sheep — the disengaged and uninvolved are everywhere!
Seeing the Square Wheels Through McGregor’s Theories
In a Theory X environment, managers assume employees dislike work, need close supervision, and resist change. These leaders focus on compliance and control. McGregor might say that, in a Theory X organization, the Square Wheels wagon keeps bumping along while people complain about the thumps and bumps of the journey. Management blames employees for inefficiency rather than reconsidering how systems, incentives, and communication could make the rolling smoother.
By contrast, a Theory Y leader assumes people want to contribute, find satisfaction in achievement, and take responsibility when given the chance. Viewed through that lens, the Square Wheels image becomes an invitation to engage people in improvement. The round wheels—new ideas, process innovations, or better teamwork—are already within reach. Employees simply need the trust, context, and participation to help “swap the squares for the rounds.”
Given Gallup’s 2025 data showing 79% of workers are disengaged in the workplace, it does not seem like theory Y is prevalent in most of today’s workplaces.
From Theory to Action: What McGregor Would Do
If McGregor could step into a contemporary workplace equipped with the Square Wheels metaphor, he would likely use it as a conversational catalyst. He understood that lasting motivation does not come from external controls but from intrinsic satisfaction—when people see meaning in what they do and feel ownership of results.
He might conduct a workshop where teams discuss:
-
What are the Square Wheels in our daily work?
-
What round wheels do we already know about but haven’t implemented?
-
What prevents us from making the change?
-
How can we take responsibility for making the ride smoother?
The goal would not be to impose solutions but to shift assumptions about people and motivation from “people need to be pushed” to “people want to help.” In other words, he would turn the discussion from compliance to engagement and commitment.
Why Square Wheels Speak to McGregor’s Legacy
Both McGregor’s theories and the Square Wheels metaphor rest on one human truth: people do better work when they feel heard, respected, and engaged in solving problems.
The power of Square Wheels lies in its simplicity in that it helps every person and asks them to be involved and to share their ideas, from frontline employees up to the most senior of executives. It simply asks them to visualize where things get stuck and how collaboration can create improvement.
Using Square Wheels pushes people to ASK much more than TELL. This has significant impacts on ownership involvement and resistance to change.
McGregor might readily conclude that Square Wheels provide a practical and visual language for bringing Theory Y to life. They make abstract ideas about trust, empowerment, and motivation tangible—and they remind leaders that the solutions to engagement are almost always sitting right there, waiting to be rolled into action.
Read more about Theory Y and the thinking about people and performance here:
I hope you found this interesting,
—
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® are a registered trademark of Simmulations, LLC
and images have been copyrighted since 1993,
© Simmulations, LLC 1993 – 2025
#SquareWheels #InnovationAtWork #TeamEngagement #FacilitationTools #WorkplaceImprovement #EmployeeEngagement #CreativeProblemSolving #OrganizationalDevelopment #LeadershipTools #collaboration #leadership #stormz
0 Comments