How to INSTANTLY Make a Standard Operating Procedure That Works
- David Langley
- May 15
- 3 min read
Updated: May 20
Hello again, your favourite guy who talks about Ops is back, if you have such a leaderboard in your head.
And I wanted to share with you a little trick I've been using for years of how we at Opticks. quickly and easily show people how to do something, and it's so easy.
We're going to show you how to use Scribe to create instant Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs from here on out), and NO, we're not on any commission, we just love their product!
What is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)?
An SOP or Standard Operating Procedure...is exactly that. How do you do something, how do you get from A to B, and how can it be written down so that someone or something (👀 AI agents anyone..?) can follow that procedure again and again and again...
...with consistent results being the key.
When Do I Need a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)?
Good question!
When you do something more than twice I'd say, and you plan on doing it multiple times in the future, and the order and you want the way of which you are going to do it to remain consistent with no surprises.
Changes...yes. But only when you can see that it will make your procedure better.
Have you ever been asked how to do something multiple times by someone annoying?
Write the SOP and shove it in their face.
Why Do I Need a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)?
Two main reasons that I can think of of the top of my head:
1) To save you time explaining it to someone else.
2) If you get hit by a bus tomorrow and no one else knows how you do what you do.
There's myriad of other reasons like continuous improvement, diligence, scalability of the business and the consistent results for your clients to name a few...but the above are my two faves.
How Do I Create a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)?
A good Standard Operating Procedure will:
Introduce what it is
What it's purpose is
What result should be acheived
And the key ... show exactly what needs to be done.
So how do you show exactly what is done?
This can be done in prose, but not many of us human beings enjoy reading prose to understand how to do a job or task. So we tend to avoid those.
In it's simplest form, we write a step by step guide to something you do in a list, let's use booking a call with us at Opticks.
Search for opticks.global on Google
Click the link to the Opticks. website
Navigate away from any cheesy photos of David
Find a CTA to book at a free ops audit call
Choose a date and time
Answer the mandatory questions
Book
Or if you're visual person (like me) a flow is a simple way to show an SOP:
But how much detail is this giving? Not a lot, right? A lot of room for ambiguity and a lot of room therefore for inconsistent results.
That's why we LOVE using Scribe, it shows the viewer exactly what we're seeing when we're going through our flow.
Check out the above example here:
It allows me to guide the person through the process, I can talk to it to transcribe my prose, and it literally takes me 2 minutes.
SO ... Use Scribe, create a whole raft of SOPs, and go ahead and get some freedom back!
Fancy booking a free ops audit and I'll show you how to use it?
Book your free Ops Audit
In our FREE one-hour session, we’ll help you pinpoint the friction in your processes, highlight quick wins, and identify where your team can unlock real performance.
No hard sell. Just honest insights.
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