One of my favorite bosses, also of above-average intelligence (actually, way, way above - MIT child prodigy and such) got promoted to run one of our factories. Now, there were only 6 or so of these things, so this was a big deal.
Being a manufacturing concern of heroic proportions, there had developed quite a hierarchy - worker, section chiefs, department chiefs, assistant managers, managers, directors, and then the big guy - factory head.
He told me that historically, the big guy would only have carefully orchestrated tours of the factory floor - every one of those layers carefully planning every step, showing off only their favorite accomplishments on the factory floor (for their own personal promotion advantage, of course).
My old boss told me he would simply walk, unannounced, onto the factory floor and wander around to see stuff. Five layers of management would be freaking out, rushing after him, fearing he may find one of them incompetent.
Brownian motion - who knew it was a management technique?
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