Can informal one-on-ones help my team?

I remember we used to have, when I was a consultant, informal one-on-ones very frequently with your manager and with people that you're managing as well and your team members. And when you come to those one-on-ones the one rule is you can't talk about the project, you're not allowed to talk about the project. You're not allowed to talk about work. It's really about, "Hey, how are you doing?" Human to human level? "How are you doing? How's things going? How's life? Are you getting on okay? Is there anything I can do to support you better? How am I working with you? How are we communicating with each other?"