A quiet spin to begin

We were all gathered in the main meeting room, a bit of that pre-workshop fidgeting in the air. I set the laptop up to project the spin wheel, a simple digital one I’d made for moments like this. The goal was just to pick our first breakout activity without the usual back-and-forth.

The moment before the click

I remember asking if everyone was ready for the spin, more of a formality than a real question. A few people nodded, others just looked at the screen, their coffee cups resting on the table. There’s always that slight pause, a collective breath held, before the virtual wheel starts to turn.My role in these sessions is mostly to facilitate, not to decide. So I clicked the button, and the colored segments began to blur together. It’s a small thing, but handing the choice over to chance changes the energy in the room immediately.

Landing on the first task

The wheel slowed, clicking past one option, then another, before finally stopping. It landed on ‘Problem Statement Refinement’. I read it out loud, just stating what was there. No one questioned it or suggested an alternative, which was the whole point.There was a shared nod, a few people reaching for their notebooks. The debate that sometimes eats up the first ten minutes was simply absent. We had our starting point, and it felt fair because no single person had dictated it.That acceptance, the lack of debate, let us move directly into the work. We transitioned from a group waiting for direction to a team with a clear, neutral first step. The clarity was its own kind of momentum.