7
The conference room projector was broken for weeks; the team met on the stairs instead.
There were no slides to hide behind and no chairs to sink into. Each person had one minute per step to say what they finished, what blocked them, and whom they needed. Conversations became narrower, warmer, and faster. Engineers asked the sales lead to bring one real customer problem each morning, and design began sketching on a whiteboard taped to the railing. It wasn’t glamorous, but deadlines hit more cleanly, and the product felt shaped by breathing people instead of by decks. When the projector was finally fixed, nobody moved back.
