Square Wheels and Anti-FLOW. Here are some pragmatic ideas for getting teams unstuck and rolling along more better faster.

“If your team is working hard but stuck in quiet resistance, here is a simple visual process you can use this month to release that trapped energy and get performance moving again. Supervisors and facilitators can readily use these techniques to impact change and performance.”

If flow is the feeling of “we’ve got this,” anti‑flow is the sense of “why does this have to be so hard?” Teams in anti‑flow are still pushing, but against misaligned goals, clumsy processes, and unspoken agendas.

Using the Square Wheels^® metaphor tools gives people simple concepts for consideration and a language to explore what’s thumping and bumping, all designed to uncover better ideas for moving better and faster and all designed to help people move from grudging efforts to energized execution.

Sometimes, we need to step back from the wagon to look for opportunities for improvement.

Few teams need another speech about working harder. They need a way to talk about the drag and look for possibilities. Anti‑flow shows up as quiet resistance, sarcastic humor, or repetitive behaviors, even from good people.

The Square Wheels concept lets people step back from the wagon, name the frictions safely, discuss considered alternatives and then redirect their effort toward rolling the wagon downhill, not fighting the flow. I call it dis-un-engagement.

Flow gets individual teams moving; Square Wheels discussions get them unstuck. Anti‑flow shows up when people are pushing and pulling hard, but against the work rather than with it. They are reactive, resentful, or simply “going through the motions.” The Square Wheels metaphor is a deceptively simple way to surface that resistance, release it, and redirect energy toward better performance.​

You can get a FREE usable copy of Square Wheels One along with a toolkit by clicking on the image below:

Download the FREE Square Wheels One image under Creative Commons license

From Stuck Teams and Anti‑Flow to “Let’s Fix this!”

Anti‑flow is not laziness; it is trapped energy. People feel overloaded, under‑heard, or controlled, so their efforts can turn into quiet sabotage, compliance without commitment, or endless complaint. That is fertile ground for the Square Wheels wagon: hard‑working people pushing a thumping and bumping wagon rolling along, while unused round wheels — better ideas — are literally IN the wagon as cargo, there but obviously not in use.​

The power of the image is that it is emotionally safe and metaphorical. Instead of “Why are you resisting?”, the question becomes “What are the Square Wheels getting in the way of our progress and what round wheels might be available?” That simple reframing shifts people from defending their behavior to diagnosing the system.​

Let’s move from just running around to a actually fixing things!

Why Square Wheels^® Releases Resistance

Psychological reactance research is quite clear: when people feel their autonomy is threatened, they push back. Square Wheels sessions do the opposite of a controlling, “you must change” message:​

• Discussions validate effort: the wagon does move; people are making things work.​

• The metaphors externalize blame: the problem is the Square Wheels, not the character of the people pushing and pulling.​

• Discussions invite autonomy: participants identify their own Square Wheels and their own round wheel possibilities.​ We generate divergent thinking and disruptive engagement. We encourage people to change.

Autonomy‑supportive conversations like this reduce reactance and increase intrinsic motivation to change. In flow terms, you are restoring a sense of control, aligning challenge and skill, and clarifying goals—all prerequisites for individual and team flow.​

A Simple Square Wheels Process for Anti‑Flow Teamwork

You can build a practical workshop or coaching session around four moves:

1. Show the Square Wheels One and ask, “What’s going on?”
   Invite people to describe what they see happening around the wagon: who’s pushing, who’s pulling, what it feels like, what’s frustrating, what’s confusing. Their language will surface overload, misalignment, and friction—the emotional texture of anti‑flow—without anyone feeling personally attacked.​ (The image is FREE.)

2. Name the Square Wheels—the friction points.
   Ask, “In our real work, what are some Square Wheels?” and capture specific processes, policies, tools, or habits that make performance harder than it needs to be. This translates fuzzy resistance (“I’m tired of this place”) into concrete obstacles (“We have three approval steps for a simple decision”).​

3. Mine the wagon for round wheels—latent strengths and ideas.
   The metaphor already contains unused round wheels on the wagon. Ask, “What are the round wheels we already have, the skills, relationships, tools, freedoms, that we’re not using fully?” This connects people’s strengths to team goals, a key ingredient in team flow and high performance.​

4. Convert insight into small, self‑owned experiments.
   Flow research shows that clear goals, immediate feedback, and a match of challenge to skill sustain engagement. Have each individual or team choose one Square Wheel they can influence and design a small, time‑bounded change they own. Keep the language autonomy‑supportive (“Could we try…”, “What if we experimented with…”) to avoid triggering new reactance.​

Performance Payoff: From Drag to Momentum

When you repeat this Square Wheels cycle, anti‑flow teams begin to experience three important shifts:

• From helplessness to agency. People see that they are not just pushing a badly designed wagon; they can redesign how it works. This sense of influence is a powerful antidote to chronic resistance.​

• From complaint to problem‑solving. The shared picture of Square and round wheels gives the group a common language for discussing friction and improvement, rather than blaming or withdrawing.​

• From scattered effort to focused flow. As key obstacles are removed and work is better matched to people’s strengths, attention can narrow, feedback loops shorten, and performance feels more “in the groove” again.​

In other words, the Square Wheels One image (FREE!) and associated tools can be a bridge from anti‑flow to team flow. It honors the reality that “the wagon does roll,” reveals the unnecessary friction everyone feels, and then hands the reins back to the people closest to the work so they can round the wheels and release performance.

“How do I get a stuck team into flow?” Generate a different perspective and let them see the issues in the way of rolling forward. Get them started talking about opportunities for improvement.

“What is the Square Wheels® team building tool?” They are a deep series of images used to generate perspectives on opportunities to do things differently and to generate active, team-involvement on generating changes.

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For organizations with multiple stuck teams, book a short consult to design an anti‑flow to team‑flow program using Square Wheels across departments, We can build some tools,

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

What I am about:

My Square Wheels blogs and website exist to equip leaders, trainers, and facilitators with practical process improvement tools along with effective organizational change tools. My purpose is to facilitate engagement and active involvement to help make work smoother and more human.

By blending change management facilitation with proven workshop facilitation techniques, team collaboration activities, and creative problem solving activities, my mission is to support organizations in designing employee engagement strategies that are both energizing and sustainable. Through accessible, sometimes free team building resources and virtual facilitation tools, my focus is on helping teams everywhere discover better ways to collaborate together, innovate continuously, and own their path to improvement.

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