Eric Deeran argues that constantly writing SOPs signals you've hired the wrong people. A-players don't need detailed guardrails; if you're making rules about phones and Netflix, you've hired C-level performers who will never operate independently no matter how much you document.
I was talking to one of my clients about this, and she was having an issue with a person on her team who she just had to constantly keep reminding how to do things. She had to build all these SOPs. She was like, what SOP should I build now? The person's just not getting it. And I said, have you ever thought to think about— or have you ever like thought to think about— have you ever thought about like, is this person just a C-level player? And she was like, well, no. But now that you say that, it makes sense. I said, yeah, I mean, every time I've hired someone, if they're an A-player, they don't need SOPs. It's just what I found. Like, people who are good don't need an SOP. Usually they make the SOP because they're so good. And so if you have B or C-level people on your team, the easiest way to find out is, A, are you making stupid rules like, hey, don't be on your phone at work, or don't be doing, you know, watching Netflix at work, or whatever? I stole that from Hormozi. I like that. And then B, do you have to make a ton of SOPs all the time? Because I don't want to run a business where I have to make tons and tons of SOPs, because then in 2 months the SOPs are outdated and they're not even useful anymore. And then you have to make new SOPs. And it's like this SOP masturbation. I'm like, I hate it. It's like, and then you just have all these documents that nobody reads or uses. Just hire good people, like hire A-level people and it will solve most of your problems. It's like you have to put all these guardrails in place for people who are just bad. at their job, when if you hired good people, they would come batteries included and understand exactly what to do. So.
