Program · Small businesses

AI for SOPs & Operations Playbooks

A hands-on program for small businesses that want their operations out of people's heads and into clear SOPs and playbooks — with AI doing the first draft, and humans keeping it real.

We'll use AI to capture how work actually happens today, draft SOPs in your tone, and publish them where your team already works — with simple habits to keep everything up to date.

Program overview · Audio

A short overview of the program: who it's for, what we cover, and how to get the most value out of it as a busy professional.

What your business will be able to do after this program

Less “ask Sarah, she’s the only one who knows,” more clear, shared playbooks your whole team can use.

  • • Identify which processes actually need SOPs and which can stay informal.
  • • Use AI to draft SOPs and playbooks from notes, recordings, and existing docs.
  • • Standardize structure across SOPs so they're easier to read and follow.
  • • Publish SOPs where your team already lives — not in a dead folder nobody opens.
  • • Keep SOPs alive with owners, review dates, and simple update habits.

Who this is for

  • • Small businesses with “tribal knowledge” risk
  • • Owners and ops folks tired of re-explaining the same process
  • • Teams that have tried to “do SOPs” before and stalled out

What you'll work on

  • • Your actual operations: support, delivery, back office
  • • Real processes that are currently “in people’s heads”
  • • A small, focused library of living SOPs and playbooks

Curriculum at a glance

Four modules to go from ad-hoc know-how to a small, powerful operations library.

Module 1

Discovering and mapping real-world processes

  • • Find the work that actually needs SOPs (not just what sounds good)
  • • Interview staff and owners to surface how things really happen
  • • Turn messy explanations into clear, step-by-step flows

Module 2

Drafting SOPs & playbooks with AI

  • • Use AI to turn notes, recordings, and docs into SOP drafts
  • • Add roles, checklists, and decision points so people can follow them
  • • Standardize formats so SOPs feel consistent across the business

Module 3

Publishing SOPs where work actually happens

  • • Choose where SOPs should live (Docs, Notion, wiki, etc.)
  • • Link SOPs to tools and workflows your team already uses
  • • Train staff on when and how to use the new playbooks

Module 4

Keeping SOPs alive: owners, reviews & improvements

  • • Assign owners and review cadences for key SOPs
  • • Use AI to propose updates from new situations and edge cases
  • • Build a lightweight backlog of “SOPs we still need”

1. Discovering and mapping real-world processes

Start with how work really happens today, not how it looks in a textbook.

We begin by finding the processes that actually matter: places where mistakes are costly, hand-offs are fuzzy, or people are constantly asking “what’s the right way to do this?”

  • • Short chats with key people to surface real workflows
  • • Simple mapping: trigger → steps → decisions → outcomes
  • • Spot where things break or depend on one person
  • • Pick 3–5 priority processes for this cohort's SOPs

Artifact: operations map (starter)

You'll leave this module with a short operations map:

  • • A list of key processes by area (sales, ops, support)
  • • A simple sketch of how each one flows today
  • • A shortlist of “must-have” SOPs for this program

2. Drafting SOPs & playbooks with AI

Let AI handle the first draft; humans keep the nuance and judgment.

Here we take your process notes, call recordings, or rough docs and use AI to turn them into structured SOP drafts — with clear steps, roles, and checklists.

  • • Turn raw notes into step-by-step SOPs
  • • Add roles, inputs, outputs, and edge cases
  • • Create checklists and quick-reference “mini versions”
  • • Standardize structure across SOPs so they feel familiar

SOP template + AI prompts

You'll co-create a simple SOP template and a few reusable prompts, for example:

  • • “Turn this messy description into an SOP using our template”
  • • “Pull out risks, edge cases, and escalation rules”
  • • “Create a 1-page quick-reference version for this SOP”

3. Publishing SOPs where work actually happens

Docs are only useful if people can find and use them in the flow of work.

In this module, we choose where your SOPs will live and how people will find them in the moment they're needed — in tools like Google Docs, Notion, your wiki, or even inside checklists.

  • • Pick a “home base” for SOPs (no more scattered files)
  • • Organize by team, workflow, or life-cycle so people can browse
  • • Link SOPs into your tools: forms, boards, CRM, helpdesk
  • • Train staff on when/how to pull up the right SOP

Operations playbook hub

We'll help you shape a simple “playbook hub” that includes:

  • • A single starting point for SOPs and playbooks
  • • Short descriptions for each key process
  • • Links into the tools and boards where work happens

4. Keeping SOPs alive: owners, reviews & improvements

The value isn’t “we wrote SOPs once” — it’s the habit of keeping them current.

Finally, we design the lightweight governance: who owns which SOPs, how updates get made, and how AI can help propose changes as your business evolves.

  • • Assign owners for critical SOPs and playbooks
  • • Set review cadences (e.g., quarterly for key flows)
  • • Use AI to compare “how we did it this time” vs. “what the SOP says”
  • • Maintain a small backlog of SOPs to add or improve

SOP lifecycle checklist

You'll leave with a simple lifecycle checklist you can reuse:

  • • When to create a new SOP
  • • When to review or retire an old one
  • • How to involve staff in suggesting updates

Format & logistics

Designed for busy owners and ops leads who can’t pause the business to “do documentation.”

Schedule

  • • 3–4 weeks total
  • • Weekly live working sessions (60–90 minutes)
  • • SOP drafting and testing between sessions

Team

  • • 2–8 participants
  • • Owner/ops lead plus a few “doers” from key teams
  • • Private cohorts for a single business

What you leave with

  • • 3–10 drafted and published SOPs/playbooks
  • • A simple SOP template + AI prompt set
  • • An operations playbook hub and review plan

FAQ: AI for SOPs & Operations Playbooks

Questions small-business owners and ops leaders usually ask before committing to documentation.

We’ve tried to “do SOPs” before and it fizzled. How is this different?

Most SOP projects fail because they're too big, too theoretical, or nobody owns them. Here we pick a small handful of important processes, use AI to do the heavy draft work, and build in clear ownership and review habits from day one.

Which tools do you use to store SOPs?

We work with what you already have: Google Docs, Notion, wikis, project tools, or even shared drives. The important part is structure and findability, not buying another platform. If you want recommendations, we'll share those too — but they're optional.

Can AI really capture the nuance of how we work?

AI is great at turning messy notes into structured drafts. It is not great at knowing your values, exceptions, and “we never promise that” boundaries. That's why we keep humans in charge of reviewing, editing, and approving every SOP before it becomes “official.”

How much time will this take from my team?

Most businesses can participate with 1–2 hours per week per core participant over 3–4 weeks. We'll focus on a small, high-impact set of SOPs so you see real value without turning this into a second job for anyone.

Ready to get your operations out of people’s heads and into living playbooks?

This program helps you use AI where it's strongest — drafting and structuring — while keeping humans in charge of how your business actually runs.

Talk to us about this programView all small business programs

If you'd like to pair this with No-Code Automation or AI Video SOP-style workflows later, mention that in your note and we can suggest a track.