“Ping Pong?”

“Let’s do it.”

That’s how my brainstorming sessions often starts at Sift.

Our team really encourages cross-functional communication. We all believe that in order to build a great company, we need to appreciate and empathize with our team members in different functions.

Unfortunately, translating beliefs into actions is the hard part.

I don’t want to put 30 minutes on the support team’s calendar every week just to ask, “hey, what are you guys thinking about? Any new hunches lately?” And the ML engineers don’t necessarily want to hear me spit ball data-vis ideas that may or may not be feasible in a meeting. It’s too … official.

Ping pong though – Yoav and Kanak are always down for that.

The ping pong table creates room for hunches and half-ideas to collide, breaking out of their functional silos. Folks are more relaxed, and more willing to let their minds wander. We’re not there to brainstorm, but sometimes brainstorming happens. It’s where, as Steven Johnson would say, where good ideas come from.

Of course, I’m using ping pong as a cheeky example. The larger goal I am trying to accomplish is to cultivate loose, unofficial spaces where cross-functional idea pollination happens. It’s why I don’t feel too bad hanging around the coffee dispensers, or randomly meandering through the halls every couple hours, or sending out invites on the #ping-pong channel. Making room for unexpected collisions is an important part of design process. And if nothing else, I get to work on my forehand.

How do you make room for collisions where you work?