How Google manages knowledge workers

A friend of mine has recently sent me a powerpoint presentation with several images from Google’s headquarters for Europe in Zurich… all of which can be also seen in Flickr, like the one below:

This reminded me of a definition from Watts Humphrey during SEPGLA 2007: “The key rule in managing knowledge workers is: the workers must manage themselves”.

While most IT companies keep doing things as they always did, it seems that Google believes in what Humphrey says… and it seems that is working quite well for them. Is this a simple rule that is maybe too simple for most IT managers?