A quiet spin before we begin

We were all just sitting there, waiting for someone to say something. The facilitator had this small digital wheel up on the screen, and for a second, I thought it was just another gimmick. But the silence was starting to feel heavy, and honestly, I was just glad for any direction.

When the wheel decides

She gave it a spin without any fanfare. It was a quiet click, and then the wheel slowed down, the options blurring past. There was no big announcement, just the soft whir of the projector.It landed on ‘Share a recent small win’. Not a deep, personal probe, not a silly game. Just a neutral, open prompt. I felt my shoulders relax a little. It was fair. It was transparent. No one was being put on the spot in a weird way.

The space it created

Someone from accounting went first, talking about finally reconciling a stubborn spreadsheet. It was mundane, but real. Then marketing chimed in about a draft that finally clicked. The conversation just started flowing from there, naturally.That initial relief was the important part. The decision of how to start was made for us, cleanly. It removed that awkward ‘who goes first’ dance and the subtle power plays that can sometimes happen. We could all just be in the room together, on equal footing, ready to work.The ice wasn’t so much broken as it was gently set aside. We moved into the agenda’s first real topic, and the energy felt focused, not forced. The wheel had done its job and faded into the background, which is exactly what a good tool should do.