Hey ,
I thought, “holy hell, what am I supposed to do with this?”
My first introduction to SOPs was a 3-ring binder and a stack of papers. I quickly learned the value of that binder. It became my lifeline for working with my new client, Lisa. Her team had spent
countless hours writing and testing those SOPs to perfection.
The result of those hours
invested?
I joined the team as a new member and was enabled to perform my job with minimal hiccups and requests for
help. I know the common saying is that the “devil is in the details,” but so are the angels. Without that meticulous documentation, I would have been lost.
And that is NEVER a good feeling when you join a new team.
The flip-side to that SOP coin is having zero SOPs or, even worse, SOPs that only make sense to the person who wrote them.
Kathy was a client who understood the value that SOPs bring to her business. As we began auditing her processes against the SOPs, it quickly became clear that the SOPs she had invested in did not make sense to her or the team members performing the tasks.
Yikes.
If you, as the business owner, don’t understand how to do the day-to-day work from the SOP document, how can you expect your team to?
We began a full business overhaul, looking at what SOPs needed rewriting, what processes were missing, and what was functional enough to be a lower priority for getting redone. I started writing, testing, and tweaking until we streamlined the process, automating what could be automated.
It became “rinse and repeat” as we worked our way through her business.
When was the last time you took a close look at your processes and documentation?
Hit reply and let me know how your SOP Playbook is looking.
Don’t have an SOP Playbook?
You would be amazed at what we could accomplish together during a VIP Day.
