Thanks for the responses so far.

@daniel-2, you're right that quite a few of the ideas we have may well often fall by the wayside. However, it costs nothing to have an idea, and only a minute or two to run it by someone, so even a small hit rate is still hugely cost effective.

@sknox, I agree. It's not just DBAs who need to think like this, but everyone in the organisation. The only reasons I focussed on DBAs were firstly that they and programmers provide most of the target audience here and secondly because the databases we deal with are often at the heart of a lot of important business processes. However, if I'm honest, the ideal should be that the whole culture associated with this kind of attitude is fostered right from the top of the management tree, and that would have put quite a different spin, I suspect, on the situation you described.

And @jcrawf02, I couldn't agree more. Talking with people gets you known, and once you're known people tell you incidental things. Sooner or later you start making connections between throw away comments from separate people and put them in touch with each other, and you get a reputation as someone who can get things done. Good for the company, good for the people you help and great for you.