A weird game-theoretic equilibrium in organizations: schedule chicken.

Five teams are asked "are you ready to launch" and they all say yes, even though none of them are.

They all assume that another team will cave first and say they aren't ready, and get egg on their face, saving your team's reputation.

The boss erroneously thinks the project is ready to ship: kayfabe.

But sometimes, especially if there's little psychological safety, no one caves, and so a ruinously unready product ships.