Managing, Planning and Leading in the Cloud

How will you lead your business in the coming cloud of virtualized computing, storage and social environments?  Management by walking around is going to be tough since your organization is likely to become geographically decentralized due to advances in collaboration technology coupled with the increased cost of travel.  Leadership by example is going to be tough too in that folks aren't going to see you in action quite so much.  Teaching moments will have to be intentional and not accidental.

Here is what to focus on as we move into another wave of new and world-changing technologies:

1. Policies.  You are going to have to manage by policies, and those policies are going to have to be objective and measurable.  In the past we could all get away with having subjective policies because nobody, in fact, read them or paid attention to them in the slightest.  Policy based management was usually considered to be a convenient way to keep managers occupied and out of the worker's way.  In the coming cloud, your policies will be programmed right into your computing environment to govern how information is used and managed.  Policies will be the organizing principle for virtual information management.
2. Metadata and Taxonomy Organization.  You are going to have to track metadata about information being created and used in your organization.  The information is going to move freely between knowledge workers, governed only by the policies that you implement in your computing environment.  Metadata is going to be the only method of tracking and managing the pedigree and circulation of information in your organization.  In my humble opinion, metadata is NOT primarily about finding things.  Metadata is about traceability, quality control, audience management and security.  Metadata is not about location it is about context.
3. Processes and Interfaces.  You will need to manage the interface between processes, people and teams within your organization.  You aren't going to be in a position to micromanage how people do their jobs, nor should you try.  You will focus your management on inputs and outputs between people, processes and teams.
4. Technology Agnostic.  You will need to learn to think in technology agnostic terms.  Individual technologies will come and go.  Technology providers will need to be able to facilitate the combination of software and process building blocks to create hybrid systems.  It will be a mistake to simply choose Microsoft, Google, Oracle or Floyd's Software Emporium.
5. Measurable Objectives, KPIs and Dash Boards.  You will need to establish and track Key Process Indicators.  You will need to identify or create master-indicators which track the health and effectiveness of your organization.  An internal Dow Jones Industrial Average if you will.
6. Self-Managing Teams.  You will need to provide the capability for people and groups to self-form and self-manage teams in order to accomplish their tasks.
7. Document Centric.  You will need to develop a document-centric method for controlling security, distribution and workflow management.
8. Social Networking.  You will need to provide for informal social networking opportunities.  People are social animals and need the informal chat that is a common experience within a physical office complex.  One of the biggest hurdles in being a remote knowledge worker is a feeling of social isolation and being disconnected from the team.  Out of sight, out of mind.  You'll need to provide for and tolerate a certain amount of social networking among your various knowledge workers.

The interesting thing in all of this is that it seems to be the result of a very systematic evolution in our culture.  I don't think anyone is masterminding it--who could?  But it is interesting that young people entering the workforce find the idea of a decentralized and virtual culture of work to be not only natural but ideal.   Once again our culture has adapted the upcoming crop of young people to be perfectly adapted to the world we are entering.  The style of work, life and leadership discussed in this blog seems awkward and challenging to those of us older than 30.  To those just entering the workforce it seems perfectly natural.