[xyzzy123]

The "wait time" in practicals is a good opening for lab partners get to know each other. There shouldn't be too much but 5 or 10 minutes here or there is good.

Sometimes natural slack is better for this than explicitly provided socialisation cues.

When you optimise ideally you should ensure you are thinking about the whole system.

It sounds like the changes here were positive but it's good to be mindful that everyone has blind spots and systems involving humans often have unstated objectives or things going on that aren't part of the "spec".