Guides Document the Work: SOPs
When a process lives in one person’s head, you are one resignation away from losing it. Once it is written down, the next person can pick it up on their first day.
The Pattern.
Most teams have tried to write a procedures manual at least once and stalled halfway. What exists is out of date, written in five different voices and saved somewhere nobody looks. Leaders want to help but cannot find the hours. Meanwhile the people who need the steps most are the ones who learn best from clear written instructions they can follow on their own.
What we Take Out FirSt.
We cut the list down to the procedures your team uses every week and leave the rest for later. Instead of waiting on leaders’ calendars, we write the first draft and ask them to check it. We also drop any format nobody reads.
What we build
- A procedures library with one editorial standard, so every guide reads the same way
- Step-by-step instructions written for the person doing the work
- Links between related procedures, so nobody hunts
- A home for the guides where your team already works
A good procedure is one a new person can follow without having to ask anyone.
Erin Peshoff is the Founder of Vivid Operational Advisors. She has spent thirty years inside nonprofit operations, helped raise over $100 million for institutional missions, and built Vivid around the operating discipline most strategic engagements skip.
