any tips on how to go about such things? its occasionally hard to find excuses to go hang out at the other end of the building and talk to another team I dont know much about as a regular developer

Always have a folder in your hand when visiting other teams in other parts of the office. Print out some code, a few pages of spec, whatever. Just don't go walkabout empty-handed.

I usually asked my managers by framing it to their goals, if agreed they would schedule with other managers.

It's harder during crunch or when everyone is remote.