A long table can create distance that a shared task did not require.

Furniture decides how people talk. A long table sets everyone at fixed distances, points them at whoever is in charge, and makes half the room inaudible to the other half, none of which was required by the thing the group came together to do. Formality often arrives through the arrangement rather than through anyone’s intention. The meeting then takes its tone from the room.

If a conversation this week matters, choose or change where it happens. Two chairs at a corner will get you further than the length of any table.