There USED to be a Square Wheels Controversy around which of the styles of images were the most interesting or the most effective. No longer, since we are introducing the new colored versions and building into some toolkits as we update the materials. But here is a bit about how all this evolved.

Since 1993, I have been presenting workshops internationally using a series of line-art images around the concept of Square Wheels®. The Square Wheels represent things that work but that do not work smoothly and they beg the question about what round wheels can replace them, wheels that generally already exist, making the discussion more about implementation than innovation.

Users and audiences consistently tell us that this is the best metaphor for organizational improvement or personal growth that exists anywhere. This comment from Solomon Salvis, a colleague and long-term user of Square Wheels and our Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine team building game:

Generating the understanding that Square Wheels represent how things really work is incredibly easy and people get the concept readily. Cognitive dissonance then becomes one of the driving forces underlying the subsequent generation of Round Wheel Ideas for Improvement once a Square Wheel is identified. The gap between the impact of the SWs provides motivation to decrease dissonance and improve the idea.

The old controversy existed between our use of the original line-art drawings by Roy Sabean and some newer LEGO scenes, as you can see below:

With the LEGO, we did hundreds of pictures, scenes, and even stop motion videos. The LEGO versions worked very well for our purposes of adding color and animations to our various PowerPoint slides and short training videos.

A short online survey of users asking them which of the above two images they preferred, showed that the reactions were split as to which image was favored. We asked our LinkedIn network as to their reactions and the feedback was also split. Some people prefer the original line-art illustration while others prefer the LEGO, and there are a number of factors that underly this split.

People who prefer hands-on kinds of experiential exercises more likely go with the LEGO, since they can bring the metaphor into connection with other elements or frameworks like LEGO Serious Play® for those people on my Serious Playing with LEGO Facebook page. Others appreciate the line art for its elegant simplicity. Other people’s reactions were mixed.

I never thought that there would be actual differences in application and usages, which included facilitating innovation and creativity, aligning goals and values, generating active involvement and for coaching workplace improvements. My experience with both showed they work seamlessly. Facilitating discussions of issues and opportunities functioned as a team bonding or a team building process if one then uses the discussions as an impetus for planning and then implementing new ideas.

The LEGO versions made generating stop-motion animations an easy and interesting process and I even designed a workshop design to use phones and inexpensive animation software to capture tabletop storylines around process improvement or other themes within a training session — the idea is to let the participants tell their story about some organizational happening or need. And, the LEGO scenes do make for more colorful posters and worksheets and are a lot more hands-on than the line art or other images.

With more time and more discussions, we discovered an artist whose style seemed perfect for generating a new style of image that would represent the line art faithfully but which added color and the opportunity to add even more images and themes to our collection.

We thus moved to a THIRD iteration of the images, one that we think is fantastic. So here is the NEW of the New:

Please do not take a screenshot of this image since you can purchase inexpensive toolkits from us that share these images. Thanks.

And we now have a lot of different scenes and situations representing many of my most-used original line-art images. Sorry for the scale but it was the best way to put these images all in one place. Note that we add the mud, spectator sheep going “Naaaaaa Baaaaaaa,” silos, alligators, and alignment, isolation and vision metaphors to the above image to make them highly relevant to some of the issues that need discussion within organizations. 

and on and on and on.

The idea is to have these simple facilitation and engagement tools that generate ideas for improvement and the active ownership needed to push people to do things differently. If you can add the idea of “Square Wheels” to the language of their problem solving, you go a long way to positively impact the culture.

At our blog, you can find a LOT of writings about Square Wheels and the application of our tools to people and performance.

And, if you want to work directly with me to package a toolkit and approach for using these ideas and images in your business improvement initiatives or as a tool for your consulting work with a focus on a topic such as change or innovation or facilitation skills, let’s DO It!

And we can even create some engaging workplace images and thoughts for a poster wall about ideas for culture change. There are all sorts of collaborative ventures here!

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
LEGO® is a trademark of The LEGO® Group®
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.

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