This details a FREE offer around the vision of supervisors using Square Wheels^® and Stormz, a brainstorming tool, to generate and capture ideas for workplace improvement.

For more than 3 decades, I have maintained a vision of supervisors using my Square Wheels images with their people to generate active involvement, engagement and innovation, in addition to many other positive impacts. It is something that I would love to accomplish, globally. So, here are some first steps in this roll-out.

You can learn more about why Square Wheels is such an amazing facilitation and motivational tool by listening to this 13-minute podcast

Now, I have made a choice to make Square Wheels^® One FREE with a Creative Commons licensing making it available to anyone to use. You can get that image and toolkit and see the licensing details by clicking below:

Download the FREE Square Wheels One image under Creative Commons license

https://performancemanagementcompany.com/square-wheelsone/

And, we have reached an agreement to also bundle a FREE Stormz template with the free image and supporting toolkit so that a supervisor can deliver a bombproof 45 to 60 minute packaged program to gather ideas from their people about what things could be improved in their workplace.

So, WHY this bundle of Square Wheels and Stormz?
And why Supervisors?

A supervisor using Square Wheels One can multiply their impact using Stormz to transforming a simple conversation about improvement into an ongoing, shared process of visual thinking, data collection, and collaborative decision-making. Supervisors have direct contact with all of the people working to produce within an organization. Gallup (2025) finds 79% disengagement among these people so we NEED to improve how things work because of the many many positive impacts on organizations.

We packaged a Stormz template to build a structured digital engagement space that complements the reflective and participatory nature of a manager’s Square Wheels facilitation.​ Using Square Wheels® One is simple but using this Stormz bundle with the image built-in makes it foolproof and even more impactful.

The person using this free toolkit gets access to the Stomz brainstorming platform for free and can use this structured presentation to generate active involvement of their people in remote, hybrid or in-person meeting structures.

1. From Static Discussion to Dynamic Dialogue

Square Wheels^® One uses an image-based discussion to reveal “how things really work.” Supervisors ask team members to identify what represents their perceived Square Wheels (the things that don’t roll smoothly) and what Round Wheels might look like (ideas for improvement). Some themes are below, so you can see how this applies to workplace improvement.

There are many different themes that open for discussion when using Sauare Wheels One

With Stormz, these same reflections are collected and organized in real time: each participant inputs observations or ideas anonymously through their device. The platform automatically clusters, labels, and refines those ideas, helping the supervisor map the “landscape of friction” clearly and inclusively.​

2. Encouraging Every Voice in the Room

In a face-to-face Square Wheels session, vocal participants can dominate the conversation, leaving quieter team members unheard. Stormz solves that imbalance: everyone contributes simultaneously using phones, laptops or tablets, allowing for equal participation and psychological safety.

This “digital democracy” reinforces one of your long-tested principles—ideas are everywhere; good supervisors just need a method to harvest them.​

3. Visualizing the Round Wheels

The metaphor of Square Wheels is incomplete without its mirror image—Round Wheels. Stormz’s decision-making tools allow a team to prioritize which Round Wheel ideas have the highest collective value. Through live voting, ranking, and visual mapping, participants identify and align around the most feasible improvements. This converts your analog metaphor into a data-rich improvement portfolio of their ideas, ready to feed into continuous continuous improvement cycles.​

We use Square Wheels as the tool to generate thoughts on what can be improved. The focus is really on what Round Wheel ideas they generate because of their shared awareness of the things that can be improved. We are creating cognitive dissonance around the ideas and allowing for all individuals to share their perceptions.

4. Tracking Team Engagement and Follow-Through

Using Square Wheels One is a reflective exercise—Stormz makes it actionable and trackable. It supports the engagement of the whole group and captures all the ideas, allowing for processing. Supervisors can use our template to record the process. Stormz automatically captures documentation for debriefs and accountability reviews. The outcome is a visible action map—what your original “Round Wheel” ideas become in practice.​

Supervisors using Square Wheels can therefore transform general complaints and ideas for improvement into actionable opportunities. It’s like having a co-facilitator that turns resistance into optimism and helps the group push constructive Round Wheels forward.​ The process generates shared ownership.

5. Supervisor Benefits

For a front-line supervisor, integrating Stormz with Square Wheels One:

• Uses visual imagery to generate ideas and capture perceptions about current reality of the workplace.

• Saves time by replacing paper notes or Post-Its with organized digital insights, dramatically simplifying facilitation and dropping the required skills needed

• Demonstrates active listening through transparent, shared visual summaries.

• Reinforces dis-un-empowerment—employees see their own ideas being collected and acted upon with fewer roadblocks to engagement

• Builds continuity: every session becomes a building block for future improvement discussions.

In essence: Square Wheels One invites discovery; Stormz keeps that discovery rolling and makes it actionable.

The supervisor moves from being a “talking manager” to a “co-creator of traction and innovation”—helping the team see the issues, create considered alternatives, manage the mud, map the friction, and agree together on which Round Wheels to install to improve the workplace.​

I’ve been using and developing these Square Wheels tools since 1993 and this is the next evolution, one that will work seamlessly in most organizations. My goal is to improve active engagement in workplaces worldwide,

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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® are a registered trademark of Simmulations, LLC
and cartoons have been copyrighted since 1993,

© Simmulations, LLC, 1993 – 2025

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