Management by Word of Honor
CLOU: Colleague Letter of Understanding
Week 2 at Leadwise Practical Self-Management Intensive: CLOU.
What is a Colleague Letter of Understanding? (CLOU, said as ‘clue)
The CLOU is a tool used to coordinate and organize work within a company. “Each colleague within the enterprise would have a CLOU — which they, personally, would be responsible for crafting in collaboration with their key colleagues.” The document covers a person’s own mission, their distinct responsibilities for a given role, the activities to fulfill those responsibilities and target results. Lastly, the CLOU is discussed and signed off by CLOU colleagues. (ManagementExchange.com)
I would define the CLOU as a documented expression and alignment of individual autonomy with a collective purpose.
Management by Word of Honor
Thinking deeper about CLOU, the phrase ‘Word of Honor’ came to mind. The CLOU is self-written, collaboratively refined and collectively committed to. Because ‘I’ write it, it is ‘my’ word. I’m the one making a promise to my co-workers…and my co-workers would hold me accountable to my CLOU.
Here’s my CLOU for the Leadwise PMSI Course. Unfortunately, it’s only half-done (I wasn’t able to discuss this with a colleague). So in keeping with my CLOU, I will complete it this coming week.




