Management by Walking Around

I once worked with a personnel director who seemed to spend a lot of time walking around the large company where we both worked. He had friends at every level of the organization, and he seemed to know what was going on all over the company. At the time, I had some idea that he was not just a friendly person, but it took me several years to appreciate that he was working in all of these casual conversations. The style is called Management by Walking Around and this article gives a nice summary of how to accomplish it. By the way, he was one of the best personnel directors I've ever worked with.