Management by Word of Honor

CLOU: Colleague Letter of Understanding

Guita Gopalan
Jul 23, 2017 · 2 min read

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.

Practical Self Management Intensive

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Guita Gopalan

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Dream: employ a million people. Stuff I Do: The Future of Work. Worker-Owned Business. Lean StartUp. Customer Success & Experience. Impact Entrepreneurship

Practical Self Management Intensive

this is the place where we show our work

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