This post focuses on the Dis-Un-Engagement of GenZ and their Supervisors, offering the approach of enablement as a way to impact the workplace culture.

Leaders and Gen Z workers are disengaged for different reasons, but they are stuck in rolling around the same Square Wheels wagon: burned-out leaders pulling too hard and purpose-hungry young talent pushing the thumping and bumping wagon that no one is stopping to fix. And thre numbers are bad – fewer than 3 in 10 are engaged. Using the Square Wheels images, leaders can easily turn that paradox into a shared, visual conversation about work that invites Gen Z into problem-solving instead of leaving them as passive passengers.​ It can create a shared language for culture change.

The Engagement Paradox in one wagon

New research highlighted in this Forbes article by Julie Kratz (The Engagement Paradox: Why Leaders And Gen Z Are Both Disengaged) shows that many of the leaders responsible for engagement are themselves exhausted and checked out, even as Gen Z reports falling engagement and rising frustrations. At the same time, Gen Z is asking for more growth, clarity, and inclusion, while leaders feel pressure to deliver results with fewer resources and more complexity.​

It looks like this:

The experience of most workers is that few supervisors effectively ask for their ideas for improving the journey forward.Note the round wheels already in the wagon.

My Square Wheels^® wagon and the shared journey rolling forward is a perfect metaphor for this need for engagement (and motivational) paradox:

• Leaders are in front, pulling hard with limited backwards visibility, with the rope making them somewhat isolated from most of the problems caused by the Square Wheels.

• Gen Z and the rest of the team at the back are hands-on, experiencing all the thumps and bumps and wondering why this keeps happening day after day. From their current perspective, they may not see the round wheels in the wagon, No one stops to look around and maybe see the round wheels that are clearly observable by disengaged observers.​

Square Wheels One – the reality of the workplace

So:

Don’t Just DO Something, Stand There!

Who is Gen Z and why are they tired of talking “engagement”

Gen Z grew up in a world of continuous chat, not once‑a‑year corporate announcements, and they expect the same communication rhythm at work. Surveys continually show they prioritize open communication, transparency, and frequent feedback over rigid hierarchies and delayed performance reviews.​ And most supervisors are NOT prepared to give these things to them.

Surveys show them less engaged and less clear about expectations than older generations, while also wanting more learning, feedback, and purpose from their employers. Gen Z is not asking for perks; they are asking to be treated as thinking partners in how the work itself is designed. When engagement is delivered as another top‑down program or survey, it feels like more Square Wheels: noisy, slow, with loud thumping, disconnecting them from real work.​ 

Gen Z expects:

• Real dialogue, not the annual theatre of one‑way messaging or once‑a‑year engagement surveys.​

• Visible action on issues they raise, especially around growth, flexibility, and inclusion.​

• Leaders who involve them in designing the “round wheels” rather than announcing solutions they had no hand in shaping.​

Square Wheels gives supervisors an easy way to move from “we’ll let you know what we decide” to “let’s design better wheels together.”​ Using the Square Wheels wagon, a superfisor can literally put the picture in front of the team and ask:

• “What feels like a square wheel in how we communicate today?”

• “What would a ‘round wheel’ conversation look like for you?”

Then, instead of some engagement survey followed by corporate silence, the supervisor can institutionalize short, visual check‑ins: 10‑minute “wagon talks” every two weeks where people quickly name one Square Wheel and one round wheel they perceive. That steady cadence matches Gen Z’s expectation for real‑time dialogue and makes it obvious that the team is expected to speak up about friction, not silently push the wagon.​

With Square Wheels, the bridge from “we heard you” to “here is what we changed with your input” becomes tangible:

• Capture issues as literal wheels: Put each pain point (for example, “no hybrid options,” “no clear path to promotion”) on sticky notes as square wheels pinned beside the wagon.

• Co‑select changes: Have the group circle one or two wheels they believe will have the biggest impact in the next 30–60 days.

• Make actions visible: Translate those into a mini “round wheel” plan that is posted where everyone can see it, with owners and dates, and revisit the same drawing at the next meeting to show which wheels moved.

This is the follow‑through Gen Z is watching for: not perfection, but evidence that when they push on an issue, something in the system actually shifts. The wagon becomes a living dashboard for promises made and actions taken.​

Turning the workplace wagon into an interactive conversation

As I have said, Square Wheels images give leaders a low‑risk, high‑engagement way to talk openly about this paradox without blame. The supervisor shows the wagon on Square Wheels and simply asks, “How might this represent how Things really work?” and then listens and collects ideas.​

Three practical moves:

• Use the image to depersonalize pain: The problems are the Square Wheels, not the people. This makes it safer for Gen Z to speak candidly about burnout, unclear expectations, and inefficient processes.​

• Ask everyone to name “Square Wheels” and “round wheels”: Short, structured discussions reveal friction points and unused ideas already in the wagon.​ And these need to be the ideas of the players, not some senior manager sitting at a desk somewhere.

• Capture next steps in the team’s language: Instead of a generic action plan, the group creates a simple “How we’ll roll better” list tied directly to the picture and their own suggestions.​ Keep things simple, build the frameworks over time.

Giving those burned‑out leaders a Better Role (and a better roll!)

Julie’s Forbes piece (link) points out that leaders are being asked to drive engagement while carrying the load of culture, results, and constant change, which fuels their own disengagement. Square Wheels reframes the leader’s job from “motivator” to “chief conversation starter and roadblock remover,” which is more sustainable and more aligned with how Gen Z wants to work.​

Leaders can:

• Shift from pulling harder to pausing more often: Schedule brief, visual “Square Wheels stops” where the team talks about what’s not working and what could.​

• Share the pen: Invite Gen Z team members to co‑facilitate the image discussions, capture themes, and propose experiments, giving them ownership and voice.​

• Focus on removing two or three high‑impact Square Wheels at a time: Small, continuous visible changes build trust that speaking up leads to actions, which is a critical driver of engagement for younger workers.​

Designing a more interactive workplace with Square Wheels

Gen Z is pushing organizations toward more interactive, collaborative workplaces where feedback is continuous and experimentation is normal. Square Wheels sessions can become a recurring engagement habit, that simple ritual that keeps the wagon rolling while regularly upgrading the wheels.​

Some concrete practices:

• Start with ONE meeting using the FREE Square Wheels One image. (Clink here to access it plus a toolkit.)

• Have monthly team meetings with a new Square Wheels image and a focusing question tied to current realities (e.g., “What feels like a Square Wheel in our hybrid work that we might want to address?”).​

• Use digital versions of the images in virtual sessions, whiteboards, or polls so remote and hybrid Gen Z employees can annotate the wagon and vote on the most important square wheels to fix.​ You can get these from me or ask your Training department to acquire a license for use.

• Link outcomes to development: As teams identify and implement round‑wheel ideas, leaders can connect those contributions to learning opportunities, stretch assignments, and visible recognition, addressing Gen Z’s hunger for growth and appreciation.​ Collect and share these successes with other managers to get more improvements rolling and to generate more peer support.

When leaders and Gen Z look together at the same Square Wheels wagon, the engagement paradox stops being “supervisors versus young people” and becomes “all of us versus the way we’re working.” That shared picture is often the first, simple step toward a more interactive, trusted, and energized workplace.​

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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 images have been copyrighted since 1993,

© Simmulations, LLC 1993 – 2026

What I’m About:

My Square Wheels blog and website exist to help leaders, trainers, and facilitators make work smoother, more engaging, and more human. I focus on practical tools for process improvement, organizational change, and workplace collaboration that spark insight and deliver measurable results.

And I am convinced, after 30+ years of using Square Wheels^®, that it is the best facilitation toolset in the world. One can use it to involve and engage people in designing workplace improvements and building engagement and collaboration. It is a unique metaphorical approach to performance improvement and we can easily license your organization to use these images and approaches.

By blending proven facilitation methods, creative problem-solving, and engaging team activities, my mission is to support organizations in building energized, sustainable cultures of involvement and innovation.

Through accessible — and often free — resources and virtual facilitation tools, I aim to help teams everywhere collaborate more effectively, innovate continuously, and take ownership of their improvement journey.

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