Winning Work Instructions: standard operating procedures

Because Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are critical for success, they’ve become ubiquitous in business. Almost every organization has an Employee Handbook, for example, outlining basic operational policies and administrative procedures. But not all SOPs are of equal value. High-performing organizations and workgroups develop thorough, concise, and well-organized SOPs as a key strategy for increasing efficiency and output quality in critical repeating processes. Follow these four best practices to make sure your company’s SOPs are clear and actionable winners.

1. Use an outline
While SOPs can take many forms, from freeform narrative to checklist to flowchart to process diagram, the simplest to implement and most effective for most uses is likely to be the lowly outline: easy to write, easy to read, and familiar to nearly everyone as a note-taking technique taught in school.

Since the overwhelming majority of procedures are a linear sequence of steps, outlines lend themselves naturally to their description; their list format mirrors the structure of task sequences. In addition, the outline form goes beyond just beyond a simple list, allowing the steps in any process to be grouped together into logical sections. Since human working memory is limited, such hierarchical organization allows the reader to understand the “big picture” of the procedure without getting lost in the individual steps.

Finally, well-crafted outlines are great workhorses, doing double- or triple-duty as step-by-step guides, progress trackers, completion checklists, and work records. Squeeze as much efficacy and productivity as possible out of these simple, elegant tools by reading some simple tips below for writing outstanding outline-based Standard Operating Procedures.

2. Group steps logically
Where do I start?
It’s probably easiest to start by writing your SOP as a simple flat list of all the steps that go into completing the work procedure. Then go back over your list and group related tasks.

How many levels should I use?
The number of levels in your outline and its overall length will vary depending on these considerations:

The nature of the work: To be easy to execute, the outline should mirror the sequence of actions in the underlying process being documented.
The logical level of work: For simplicity of understanding, the nature of tasks or activities should be consistent at each level of the outline. A “nit-picky” detail such as a specific action to take (“send an e-mail with the title “Time Off Request”) should not be at the same level in the outline as a general description of work (“Request time off”). Likewise, such general descriptions should not be at the same outline as even broader section/phase headings (“Request”, “Approval”, “Appeal” …) that may be appropriate to include for particularly long procedures.
The knowledge and skill of the reader: Those already familiar with what needs to be done need much less specific instructions than those who have never done the work before. Yet another advantage of the outline form! An employee very familiar with the work may need only to scan the top level steps in the outline, while someone unfamiliar can drill-down into as much detail as needed.
The limitations of human memory: The commonly quoted “magic number” of 7+/-2 maximum items in human working memory may not be empirically validated, but it’s still probably a reasonable rule of thumb for the number of steps in an outline level. If the number of steps in a logical grouping exceeds that range, consider breaking it down into several smaller groupings at a lower level in the outline.
3. Describe steps concisely and consistently
The effectiveness of an outline is dependent on its contents being well-written and easy to digest at each step. Since an outline allows additional details to be described at lower levels in the outline, each step should be kept short and consistent with its siblings. Read more