Diarised Problem Bombing
Now that, unless you're Remote-only, you're likely to have found yourself sitting at a desk lately in an actual office, you've probably been (re)acquainted with desk-bombing.
Where someone can sidle beside you, only to stop and - the horror - try strike up a random conversation with you.
I note this modern description of being disturbed in such way leads to a pair of characters. The 'kamikaze bomber' and the 'repeat bomber'. As determined by their volume of approaches.
One sales outfit I was involved with back in the day had a term for this. They sought to stamp it out. Regiment their focused environment. Their label for it? Bullsh*tting.
Which whilst showing the less helpful aspects of the malaise, does also miss the point.
Many such encounters may begin with meandering social chit chat, but can on a significant number of instances, go on to pan a rainmaking nugget of vital intel.
I'm reminded of a blog from a decade back featuring GSK. A Big Pharma famed for their innovatory capabilities.
Their top brass then, through encouragement of recognising good things flow at the fringes, knew the importance of what those in my space today might call 'casual collision' and 'incidental information exchange' beyond the confines of your regular team.
Yet balance is crucial.
Who nowadays enjoys seemingly pointless 'happy hour' zoom get-togethers?
Yet despite the pushback against potentially mandated connections, there is I believe great scope in setting up a roster of the desk-bombing type, online.
You can even state what it is not.
Not false, contrived or even intimate.
But instead, a vital knowledge driver, best-practice finder and (as James Bond once said) problem eliminator.
Imagine this.
Sessions over video. Limited to the current classic 8-minute slot. Frame the boundaries of topics; relating to supplier, partner or customer issue. You could even specify by peer-group or intake-date only. Issues don't need to be set out in lengthy, forensic or uncomfortably candid detail; headline, abstract even, info only please.
Call it Problem-Bombing.
And see enthusiasm, wellbeing and productivity soar.