From Social Physics…
“People can teach themselves to be charismatic connectors – they are made not born. The trick is to do what creative people do: they pay attention to any new idea that comes along, and when something is interesting, they bounce it off other people and see what their thoughts are; they also try to expand their social networks to include many different types of people, so they get as many different types of ideas as possible. They use the coffee pot or water cooler to talk to the janitor, the sales guy, and the head of another department. They ask what’s new, what is bugging them, and what they are doing about it, and trade their ideas for ones they’ve picked up from other people. Not only is it fun to be an idea collector, but people will appreciate help in being kept plugged in”.