How to Create a Standard Operating Procedure

A Standard Operating Procedure, or SOP, can be super helpful to you, your team, and your business. It may seem like overkill but you would be surprised at how much you keep in your brain.

Reasons to Create an SOP

You may have heard the story of a doctor who was looking for ways to reduce errors in the ER. He discovered that pilots have a checklist for everything: from how to inspect the plane before getting into it to how to start up the plane, to emergency procedures. These are all things pilots should know how to do, yet having a checklist is a requirement in the cockpit. When that doctor applied the same concept to the ER, fatalities declined drastically. 

Nothing is ever too mundane to have a checklist for. Here are some reasons to have an SOP. 

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  It may seem like muscle memory but it could take up space in your brain. You do not want to waste that space on mundane tasks.
• It will help you to delegate because someone else can step in. Do you ever notice how there is a checklist of cleaning activities in public bathrooms? Surely most people know how to clean a bathroom. The checklist is a simple way to ensure every task gets done and by anyone on the team.
• It will help you to train new hires. When you have an SOP, you can use it as a training guide while you walk your new hire through the procedure. 
• It will help you keep accountability. Going back to the checklist posted in public bathrooms. When a team member completes the tasks, they initial next to it. This shows who completed them and allows for managers to hold members accountable when tasks are not completed correctly or at all. (Hint, it will also allow you to stay accountable to your business by ensuring you get your tasks done too.) 
• It will help team members to see where your procedures can be updated or improved. When everyone has access to the SOP, they can ask why things are done a certain way and offer suggestions for improvement.

How to create an SOP manual

Now you know and are ready to create SOPs in your business, congratulations!

But how do you start? 

1) Write out the steps. 

While you’re doing them. While you’re thinking about them while on a walk, driving (after of course), in the shower (after of course). 

2 ) Start with the big steps

I recently created a 9-page SOP for a process that should happen about once a year. Do not freak out, this is a multi-week process with a lot of steps. BUT I also had screenshots and photos peppered throughout.

Get this though, the big steps? There were a whopping THREE of them. That’s what I started with. And you know what, organizing the SOP that way helped me to stop seeing the process as overwhelming myself.

3) Add in small steps

Now that you have the bones of your SOP, start adding some meat to it. Identify the little steps that go into the big steps. 

4) Add in explanations of each step

Jot a 1-2 sentence description of each step so people have context.

5) Finally, determine the best way to share your SOP. 

Consider where it will be the easiest to access. For instance, cleaning procedures--on the wall. Filing procedures--on or inside the filing cabinet. Writing checks--inside your ledger. Onboarding a new client--inside your CRM. Flying a plane--attached to your leg. 

Consider how robust of an SOP you need. Maybe it’s simply shared in Google Docs or Sheets, maybe you use a checklist or project management tool. 

It needs to be second nature to use your SOP. Make it easily accessible and easy to use. The less you have to think about doing a task, the more quickly and accurately that task gets done. You will have more energy to tackle the big brain tasks in your zone of genius!