Have you ever wondered why you can’t get your team to do a thing that you say?
Even when you’ve turned your processes into SOPs?
It’s all about knowing how adults learn and train best.
And that depends on how engaging your SOP content is..
Or if you put your team members to sleep every time they open your checklist.
By creating SOPs for adults, you can make them engaging from the get-go and more likely for your team members to follow them and get things done.
What that means is building self-managed teams that run your business systems for you so you can step away to focus on more growth.
Think of it this way - every time you post a piece of content on social media, you want to grab your audience's attention and not have them keep scrolling.
It’s the same with your business documentation - if you want your team to implement things consistently, train and retain knowledge better during onboarding, or refresh knowledge on something, you want your SOPs to be engaging, not the usual jaw-dropping yawn-inducing checklists.
So how do you turn your boring SOPs into engaging content your team actually follows?
1. Get your team members’ attention before they dive into an SOP
You are competing for their attention with their busy schedule and you need to give them a reason why they need to focus on SOPs or process training.
The first thing to do is clearly show the value of knowing how to do XYZ - is it saving them time, making them look better in front of clients, asking Rachel from HR fewer questions, etc?
When folks know the value of going through your SOP or training, they will be more likely to use it.
2. Keep your documentation engaging
The key is not just to grab your team members’ attention but also to keep it throughout the SOP or training process.
This is where creating SOPs in an engaging way matters.
Not yawn-inducing, long checklists.
But interactive content that prompts your folks to engage with it.
From clicking on hyperlinks, to watching brief conversational video examples, to GIFs.
This helps adults engage with your content and retain information more.
Let your folks implement SOPs during training to keep it interactive and help them learn better.
You can also do online trainings, which give your folks a choice.
Otherwise, they may feel stuck going through SOPs or trainings without having a choice.
Give folks a method that works best for them.
3. Run quick tests on SOPs/trainings with your team members
This makes your folks a bit more accountable.
Knowing they would be tested at the end of trainings would encourage them to engage with your SOP content a bit more.
Testing helps retain knowledge better.
Knowing how to create more engaging SOPs will help your team follow them more consistently, which will also help you create a more self-managed team.
This is how you can step away to focus on more growth.
More engaging SOPs will also help you more seamlessly onboard new hires and retain them long-term.
I trust these suggestions will help you improve your SOPs and team trainings. But if you are uncertain how to go about this - that’s what I do during my Business Process Audits, which are free. These are not sales calls.
I audit your processes and your SOPs to identify how they can be improved.
By the way, I am also certified with Trainual, which is an excellent tool to create your business playbook and a big part of that are your SOPs.
If you are interested, you can schedule your 15-min Audit.
I can look at your processes and SOPs and even give you a short tour of Trainual.