Mike Vardy explains who should write SOPs and shows how to use ClickUp Docs to create them. The person actually doing the task should write it, with input from the subject matter expert, not the other way around.
Today's question is who should create sops?
This video clip is going to be a clip of the office hours that I actually hold twice a week live with all clients of ProcessDriven. So if you'd like to join this conversation live, you will need to become a processdriven client. Don't worry, there's lots of ways to do that. I will put the description below to my ClickUp consulting work or my SOP documentation services.
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Stuff in the description. However, I highlight the best questions and the best answers, at least my opinion. This is something I think is going.
To provide a lot of value out.
Here to YouTube and repurpose that out here for the YouTube video.
So that is what I'm about to show you. Brace yourself.
Let's flip over to office hours.
I like to head all of my SOPs with this header. So you see here I have four blocks which is a table in ClickUp. So I just table and then I created it like so. And I like to have a manager, an expert, and then a task for updating it for each sop. So most of the time the manager I try to have as being the person who's doing the task. So this is the person who has the right, the ability, the responsibility to create and keep up to date this specific sop. So gathering testimonials as soon as I offload that to it for a va, that VA would be responsible for maintaining that documentation. When she changes her process because she feel like she realizes, oh, there's a better way to do this, her responsibility is to fill this out. The second person I have involved in SOP creation is a SME, a subject matter expert, a person to ask if you have any. If you're stuck and you really need clarification beyond what the SOP allows for. Now because this is a ClickUp doc, people can tag this person you using the at symbol. So I'll actually tag myself in. I'll actually tag myself in the oh my gosh, here in the table here. So I will type my name in and I will type that in. But they could also tag me in a comment in this area when they get to FAQs. A lot of the time the SME for these at this point will be me when there's tasks that I have done for a long time and now I'm taking off of my plate. But there are other times, like just recently I purchased a new transcription software where basically it will take videos like this. It will automatically transcribe them. So turn them into written documents and it will also create subtitles for them. I bought the tool and I literally took the tool, added my VA as a user to it and I sent her instructions and I said, look, here's the tool. What I'd like you to do is learn how to use it and then just create the SOP and tell me what I need to know in that sop. For that instance, she would be both the manager and the SME for that because she's the one doing it. She's also the one who's kind of the master at it. There's a lot of tasks where that's not the case, where they're two different people. So when you've offloaded something, like I said, the person who really, really knows it is probably going to be your SME and the manager is usually the person that does it on a day to day. Both of those people to me need to be involved in the creation of SOPs. The biggest mistakes I see when it comes to standard procedures, which I'm guilty of too sometimes is the person who's the owner the C suite, the up here. They are the ones who are like we need processes. And they'll just keep yelling that from the rooftops. And at worst case they create them and then they just kind of smack them on the heads of the people underneath. Well, unfortunately the people who really understand how the process needs to be done are the people that do it. So you'll see me talk a lot about my approach to creating documentation. It's a little bit different than what you'll read in books like Clockwork. Kind of disagree with his, his explanation of it a little bit. But basically what I recommend is workflow mapping for something complex that you don't necessarily know how to do it. So like client service. If you're doing something simple, skip that step. Then what I would do is do the step while documenting it, which sounds like it takes a long time. I really don't think it does. And then once that happens, do the task using your own documentation. What you'll see other people suggest is loom video like record it while you do it, then document it, then do it with a documentation. It's just different ways to the same approach. I would say do whatever is going to be easiest for you and that is most time effective. Another thing you can also do here is interviews so that SME to the manager. The manager can interview the SME, the subject matter expert and create the documentation that way. I've seen that work really well too. So who should create SOPs? The person doing it and the person who knows a lot about it. Both people should be involved more. So the person who does it every day should have the leading charge. But everyone should have a stake in the SOP game. Honestly, the business owner who's usually bored to tears by SOPs, they're the ones that are making the residual value from having SOPs. They're the ones who are able to, you know, say, like, my business has an instruction manual that adds so much value that business owners should also have a stake in this, even if it is something that's kind of down the line in terms of use. So a lot of people should be involved in that.
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Thanks so much for watching. Creating documentation is like the gym workout of business. We all know it's good for us, but some of us could use a little bit of accountability and support to make sure we get things done. If that sounds like you consider reaching out every quarter, I work with a group of small businesses who are looking for accountability and support to build their business instruction manual in ClickUp. Find out more at ProcessDriven co.
