The quiet before the sprint

We were all gathered, notebooks open, waiting for the sprint to be defined. The air was thick with that familiar, low-grade tension of unassigned tasks. No one wanted to be the one to pick first, or to argue for the less glamorous work.

The moment the wheel appears

Our lead didn't say much. They just shared their screen, and there it was—a simple digital wheel with all our names on it. It was such a small, almost silly thing. But the collective exhale in the room was immediate and real.We all knew what it meant. This wasn't about favoritism or seniority or who was most vocal. It was just chance, pure and simple. The debate we were all bracing for simply evaporated before it could even start.

Accepting the spin

They clicked the button, and we watched the colors blur. For a few seconds, we were just a group of people watching a little animation, not colleagues negotiating territory. When it stopped on Priya's name, she just gave a small shrug and a smile.That was it. No one questioned it. No one suggested a re-spin or argued that someone else was better suited. We all just accepted the outcome and moved on to discussing the specifics of her first task. The energy shifted from defensive to collaborative in an instant.The wheel didn't make the decision for us, not really. But it made the process of deciding feel fair. It removed the unspoken politics and let us get straight to the work, which is all any of us really wanted.