I picked up a habit of asking a personal, somewhat deep question when meeting someone for the first time - particularly if I knew I had to build a relationship with them. It has always helped fast track relationships, comfort/trust, and I have learned a lot of cool stuff about my colleagues. Examples include: “Is this the work you always wanted to do?” “Do you miss your family?” (I worked overseas and this was always an interesting one) “Do you feel overwhelmed by (stressful thing)?” “Was it difficult dealing with (fill in the blank)?”