I'm still glad he didn't head to the airport with us right after.
It would not have been friendly.
We'd done the work. We had a great relationship. And we were, per the potential client, the clear frontrunner in this multi-billion dollar opportunity.
But we weren't taking any chances.
So we got a communications and pitching expert to come in and help us with our preparation for the final meeting.
Not the usual move but worth the investment, right?
But in retrospect, my colleague must have felt a little awkward practicing in front of his peers.
In retrospect, he didn't participate or use the resource in a way the rest of the team did.
And in retrospect, it screwed us all over.
Just keep that in mind as you read on... It may not seem like it matters, but it does.
What Standard Operating Procedures Do For Your Business
For being one of the least exciting things to do for your firm, putting together process documentation is perhaps one of the most profit enhancing.
Developing Standard Operating Procedures (or Playbooks or Training Manuals) is a pretty regular occurrence in our fractional COO engagements. Whether it's a process we've built or a process pre-existing with our clients, documenting your firm's way to do things enhances the scalability of your firm.
It means individuals stop being some kind of walking encyclopedia for the firm while taking the burden off you, the owner (or me when I've built the process for you), to be that personal SOP.
That then frees up time, which makes it easier to bring on new business and bring on new hires, and makes your firm more turnkey and more profitable for future transactions (aka worth more money!).
So all-in-all, building SOPs is a good deal for you now and in the future.
But there are several ways where you can drop the ball and make them less than effective.
And because getting people to document these things can be kind of like pulling teeth (it's definitely not the most glamorous job in the world), we might as well do it right.
Besides, the last thing I want for you is to say "I documented all of this but nobody's paying attention to it."
That's a "screw you all over" moment that nobody needs.
So let's clear up a few roadblocks.
First is actually getting it started.
The first roadblock to documenting processes
Let's leave aside the time commitment - that's a prioritization thing or a decision to delegate just like my clients have done with me (because they, like you, also have limited time). Excuse me if this is too blunt for you but if you want this done and prioritize it, you'll get this done. If you don't, you won't.
What I'm getting at here is that, in my experience, the documentation process itself will trigger a level of anxiety in some of your people. Particularly in the person doing the job currently.
Are they going to lose their job? Are they facing competition? Will they get judgment for not doing it exactly right?
You may be excited for the way the documentation will help you move on to higher value, less distracting things. But not everyone has that entrepreneurial push to expansion. There can be comfort in doing the same job for eternity. Not for me, not for you, but perhaps for them.
And while you may be tempted to force a process you wrote on them, it's not recommended. Especially given the following...
Getting documentation from the source
You shouldn't be the one to document it all especially if someone else has been doing the job for a while.
Of course you have your standards.
The other day I put together an SOP for my own firm on a series of tasks I'm outsourcing. It was a brand new outsource - something I had done in the past so technically I was the internal person on the job.
There's a couple things I definitely care about which is typical of most owners and most processes:
- My standards and expectations (aka a "definition of done")
- How we keep files organized and protect sensitive data (aka the "red flags")
- Keeping a transparent workflow so I know and they know where things are at
- How communication should work to keep roadblocks and bottlenecks to a minimum
But I'm not the expert. I don't know which button to push where in every case. I'm not the long term expert - the person I'm delegating to is.
So I got feedback.
But now that the resource exists, they will train the next resource. Or help build or enhance the documentation to do it.
If another contractor came along who needed guidance in this same area, I'd ask the current one for input, not assume that my previous scrappiness was any indicator of forever expertise.
How to build effective procedures
When we are getting the expert to document something - not just our owner standards and expectations - the key is to record or document the process as if training someone else to do it and understand it.
The temptation though will be to explain not train.
What do I mean here?
Have you ever done a sales or customer service roleplay?
Like my colleague who lost us the $6 billion deal, all he did in our very expensive practice session was talk about what he might and would do.
Everyone else was using their script, giving actual answers, truly practicing.
But he was explaining.
And that's where documentation gets messed up too.
Let's say a video walkthrough is being recorded. The context and standards are one part of it. But the step by step is training, not explaining.
One client employee whose walkthroughs I've filmed and turned into documented SOPs is fantastic at the training side. So much so that the other day, her firm's owner and I were chatting and I could explain to him exactly what we were looking at on the shared screen and which spot we needed to head next to dive deeper.
I was practically ready to do her job (not quite, but you know what I mean.).
Whereas some others I've attempted this with are great at explaining.
"I just go in the system and do the thing."
"It's easy. I just call the client and talk to them."
"Oh, that rarely comes up."
Going back to the anxiety issue, this explaining is one of the ways you'll see this manifest. And it's one of the ways in which your documentation will never be quite as good, unless you can redirect them into training mode, ease the anxiety, and keep them on track.
Eliminating excuses & Barriers To Use
Now do you want to hear the #1 reason your people aren't using the SOPs?
After all that psychology and anxiety and leaving money on the table, it's simply this...
You didn't put the documentation somewhere easy to access or keep updated.
Sure, some people will think they just don't need them. They already know how to do their jobs.
(Back to not springing things on people... if you need to change a set way of doing things, this is another area of resistance you need to plan for. That's a whole article on its own).
But for the person who does need the training but also has plenty to do, the idea of stopping, searching for a process in a random series of shared drives, searching inside the process, scrolling through an overlong video or document or checklist...
When they could come to you instead and you'll just give them the answer?
It's like Pavlov's dogs. Of course they're going to come back to you instead of jump through all the hurdles you built for them.
I acknowledge that at the beginning, there probably won't be all that many processes for your firm. It will look easy. You might have one folder with six Google docs in it.
But over time, the number of playbooks, playbook chapters, checklists, templates and more... it can explode in volume.
One "process" might be dozens of steps and sub-processes with images, visuals, written documentation and even flowcharts.
Using purpose-built platforms like Trainual makes the accessibility hurdles go down and your transparency into usage rates go up.
You'll still need to encourage and manage, but you won't be making it cumbersome or cost them productivity (perceived or otherwise) to do so.
If this is the kind of thing you'd rather delegate than fight your way through, like my clients have, let's talk about what that looks like.
