[Maritime Q-Scout]

I suck at small talk, in the type of person that is more than happy to chat if you initiate but I have trouble initiating myself.

What I find works, at least when on the move (ie: walking to a meeting or you're passing in the hallway)

"Hey how's it going" (bonus if you can use their name)

Then weather is an easy go to.

"Beautiful out, we don't deserve it but I'll take it...

I'd love it to be like this until oh, mid-February or so"

or

God Bless global warming"

If the weather is bad, talk about the rain/snow storms. If you can work in a Frankie prediction, do that.

From there you can usually play off some of the easy breasy humor to another topic, play off the responses.

I can't stress how using people's names increases ease of comfort. It's something I struggle with (my brain doesn't usually hit record until AFTER I'm told your name) but I've been working on.