Comment by mellavora

Yes.

I assume you mean the thoughtful person whose probing questions unlock and unblock everyone else.

Lunchtime conversation is only one enabler of this.

I suspect the person is Hamming, as he makes reference to this in his book The Art of Doing Science and Engineering.

This aspect of what it takes to be a Hamming is curiosity about what other people are doing; you can track this by reading shipped emails or lurking in slack channels, then reaching out individually to the people/teams involved when you wonder about something.

Hamming was intentional about doing this at lunch. The magic isn't lunch, it is in intentionally seeking the information and then acting on it.