Well, That's Just S.O.P.

There was a stretch of time when the screen saver on my phone was Sisyphus pushing the boulder in a never-ending progression up . . . the . . . hill . . . . It was the same era that my morning phone alarm was the theme song from Rocky. Bam, bam, bam

Every single day, my mindset was that I was going to wake up, walk in, and get sidetracked repeatedly by something completely different than what I intended to do as a school principal. Most of that was backed up by reality and my lived experience, but as my time in the role increased and my awareness of my context grew, I was able to put a few things in place that at least lessened the battering of incessant pings on my attention and gave me a degree of say into how my day unfolded. 

Depending on the role, the context, your experience and the health or toxicity of the work culture, some systems will fall into place with ease and others after iteration. But the step that any leader can take, whether leading a time of 50, 15 or even a team of 1, is to put some standard operating procedures (S.O.P.s) in place for the most frequent requests that come your way. S.O.P.s can provide consistency and predictability, allowing you to focus on more strategic tasks.

S.O.P. or Standard Operating Procedures are detailed, step-by-step instructions that spell out how to handle routine situations and support you and your team in being more consistent in responses for everyday, every week or common occurrences. They’re best set up once and then refined as you learn or as the work and team evolves. Here are a few areas where S.O.P. in schools can make a huge difference and give administrators back time to move meaningful initiatives forward.

• Parents/Guardians requesting meetings
• Students without essential items (lunch, uniform, materials)
• Teacher material requests (time-sensitive and end-of-week)
• Alternate schedules (with more or less than 24-hour notice)
• Substitute/Guest Teacher protocols

For district or central office leaders, consider S.O.P.s for:

• Capturing work samples at professional learning sessions
• Preparing data charts for the all-admin meetings
• Segmenting data for readability and progress tracking for site administrators
• Crafting professional reading digests to support implementation
• Board meeting processes (agenda item submission templates, presentation formats)

If you started to list all the items you want to document, you’d find the list to be long and you wouldn’t start. Instead, just pick the one task that feels the most cumbersome and build from there. 

How to Get Started:

1. Identify the Pain Point: Start with the most time-consuming or mentally draining task.
2. Document the Process: Outline the ideal process in a Google or Word doc.
3. Standardize the File Name: Use a consistent naming convention (e.g., SOP I School Name I Task).
4. Review and Model: Print, review, and demonstrate the steps with your team.
5. Incorporate Decision-Making Questions: Include prompts for team members to ensure clarity in decision-making.
6. Revise as Needed: Continuously refine the S.O.P. based on feedback and evolving needs.

What you’ll find is that there is so much we rely on for verbal transfer of information. And then, in the heat of the moment, individuals pull up what pieces of information they recall and act on it. But it’s nearly always an imperfect recollection or an interpretation of what was covered. In many situations, that is “fine”, but it’s not the most efficient or consistent way to keep things moving smoothly and people to see and feel fairly treated. Inevitably, someone gets supplies faster or a quick aside to the principal and someone else doesn’t when the procedure isn’t clarified and calibrated. 

Do you need to do it for every little thing?

No.

But putting some Standard Operating Procedures in place for the most persistent things that either demand your focus as a leader or consume too much time considering they are recurring, this is a practical, actionable solution you can take right away. 

And you can stop feeling like Sisyphus, reliving the same demands daily and you can actually lead your team to the top of that mountain together.