SOP

By : Magnifico Training and Consultancy Services

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

Step 1:
Understand how you are going to present
your SOPs
Which format you choose to work with will
be dependent on a number of factors. If you
work for a large multi-national you’ll need to
have standard operating procedures which
adhere to the company’s internal policies and
standardizations. If you’re a solopreneur, you
may want to have a much simpler layout of
your SOPs for your own reference.
Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring
Step 2: Gather the relevant stakeholders

• We’re strong believers in the power of

collaborative creation. If you’re going to be
creating standard operating procedures for
particular tasks, processes, or workflows, then
you should probably contact the people who
will be, or are already, responsible for those
duties

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

Step 3: Work out your purpose
• What are you looking to achieve as you build
these standard operating procedures?
• Are they brand new? In which case, you’re
trying to create systems which function.  But
you also want them to function well, and you
need to make sure the priorities within the
process are aligned with the priorities within
the business.

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

Step 4: Determine the structure of your SOP

• If you’re in a large company, the standard

operating procedures will take the form of a
quite formal report.
• The typical approach to a report like this is
to include a cover page with the title and all
the relevant reference details, followed by a
list of chapters, before embarking on the
processes themselves.

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

Step 5: Prepare the scope of the procedure
• If you’re forming a set of standard operating procedures
for a particular aspect of a content marketing team’s
work, you should be focusing on them and their needs.
Learn where to draw the line to stop you wandering off
into other teams or departments.
• You can discuss how a workflow may span 
multiple teams, but you should know from the
beginning whether that is the case or not. Define the
limits of your investigation or you’ll end up with
mission creep

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

Step 6: Use a consistent style
• Start with action commands. Always use a verb at the
beginning of a statement for a task. This kind of language
makes it clear what you have to do and it packs a punch.
• Be concise. Don’t waffle in a SOPs report. Be clear and
convey the important information only. Talk to the air
rather than the reader.
• Make it scannable. Normally, that might be considered
blog writing advice, but when listing detailed instructions
for a particular task within the workflow, put the
actionable sections first and follow with the explanation.
Don’t make readers sift through paragraphs of text every
time they want to follow the SOPs.
Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring
Step 7: Use correct notation, if applicable

• Language
• Pictorial
• Size

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

Step 8: Work out all the necessary steps of
the process
• Now it’s time to put in the hard graft.
• Collaboratively walk through the process from start to
finish noting down every step which must be taken along
the way. Allow for input and discussion across the team,
and record down any further steps which are suggested.
• Then, once you have the spine of the process, go through
and look at each task you have recorded. Are there sub-
tasks which can be added to that task to further explain
either how it is done, or by recommending productive
ways to do it? If so, include the sub-tasks too.

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

Step 9: Try to assess potential problems in
the process
• Once you have your process on paper, it’s time to think
about whether things can go wrong. And if they can go
wrong, where would that failure likely happen?
• If you’re using your standard operating procedures to
govern a manufacturing process, which can be accounted
for easily by numbers, then you can run the calculations.
Maybe your process results in high output in terms of
production but puts strain on distribution? You know your
business better than I, you can make those assessments.

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

Step 10: Determine metrics against which
the SOPs can be judged

• To know whether your process is performing

well or poorly, you need to have metrics to
judge it against.
• It is not good enough to assume the process is
simply working. We need to understand how
it is performing so that we can optimize it.

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

Step 11: Test the process

• Now that you’ve defined your standard

operating procedures, you can put them into
practice. How you implement them is up to
you and it depends on the resources you have
available.

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

Step 16: Finalize and implement the SOPs

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring

 THANKS

From : Magnifico Training and Consulting

Magnifying Performance Through Innovative Mentoring