[kbruce]

I've been fortunate to set the pace, culture, and flow of information at my company from the bottom up. As both an engineer and an exec, I say it should be on a per-person basis, and that the manager shouldn't be the one setting the status quo.

I have a VP with whom I spontaneously meet or even go to eat with, cuz it works best for them. I have engineers who enjoy the pace and cadence of a regular sync to chat about anything and everything (or just major progress), and I have engineers who will just poke me if anything comes up. And they love it!

If you have to question the potential ramifications of this, it means you should look more carefully at your culture and who you're hiring (and perhaps yourself, to validate if your concerns are even justified).

It's all about what works best for you, so I believe a good manager will let their engineers set the pace -- I encourage everyone under me to do the same, and it's been phenomenal for our collective dev health and passion as my #1 focus... the progress and profit will come as byproducts.