Story highlights Valerie Jarrett and Donald Trump aide Kellyanne Conway had a two-hour lunch Wednesday

President Barack Obama and Trump have fostered a phone relationship that's weathered bumps

Washington (CNN) Staffs for the incoming and outgoing administrations are forging what both sides describe as effective, even sometimes warm, working relationships in the weeks before Inauguration Day, even as their visions for the country remain deeply at odds.

Over lunch, in West Wing meetings and in phone calls and emails, aides to President Barack Obama and his successor, Donald Trump, are hashing out the complicated logistics of transferring the federal government between the two who seem at odds on about nearly every political issue.

Aides on both sides characterize the affable spirit as a necessity to an effective transition. Without ample and direct communication between teams, essential information about operating the vast federal machinery could be lost.

Sharing advice on more personal topics, like how to balance family and the grind of a high-level administration post, has also helped foster ties between the current and future White Houses. Despite the drawn faces and tears from Obama's staff on the day after the election, most have concluded that helping their counterparts succeed remains a critical duty.

Obama and Trump themselves have fostered a phone relationship that's weathered bumps in the two months since Election Day. Even after Trump suggested in a tweet the transition was being hampered by Obama administration "roadblocks," the two men appeared to smooth things out during a phone call.

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