MATC's Pride Alliance flew the Pride flag last June after creating a district board policy and a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
SOPs can turn disorganization into order. Without a road map, it’s easy for anyone to get lost.
What would Milwaukee Area Technical College be without order, without proper processes and procedures?
Would it descend into a dystopian nightmare of disarray, confusion and chaos?
Gregory T. Ware, the college’s manager of quality improvement projects and planning who is better known as Sir G, laughed.
“Well, it wouldn’t be that bad,” Sir G said. “But I believe our workplace can be more effective and more efficient the more we document the steps involved in our processes.”
And the best way to document those processes? According to Sir G, write a Standard Operating Procedure, or SOP.
“SOPs can turn disorganization into order,” he said. “Without a road map, it’s easy for anyone to get lost.”
SOPs are step-by-step guidelines that clarify processes, increase efficiency and preserve institutional knowledge, Sir G said. They answer questions, alleviate headaches, provide structure and consistency, and impact the success of our students, he said.
“Simply put, SOPs solve problems,” according to Sir G, and most research in the area of Quality Improvement would suggest this to be accurate.
Sir G and the college’s Institutional Effectiveness team have helped departments across the college craft and complete more than 100 SOPs.
The headaches that come with not having an SOP can be harsh on both staff and students.
For staff, if a highly skilled, long-serving team member leaves the college, the transition to a new employee will go much smoother with an SOP that details the task-orientated steps of a project, processes or planning associated with the position.
For students, SOPs can minimize anger and frustration. In the past, if an offered course had to be canceled, students usually found out with a note on the door – and sometimes, no note at all – on the first day of class. This could leave students just a tad irritated, said Janay Alston-Burnett, Ed.D., the college’s dean of retention, success and opportunity.
“We saw the repetitive behavior semester after semester,” she said. “We saw this could cause financial stress for students. We needed some kind of think tank of stakeholders to figure this out.”
A group came up with a plan to alert college advisors if there was a possibility of a class being canceled. If a section is canceled due to low enrollment, Pathway staff, as assigned by the dean, are responsible for contacting students to notify them of the canceled section and to help them find alternative courses or sections.
This process, outlined in an SOP, was disseminated verbally in staff meetings and shared by faculty via newsletter and at Coordination Day sessions, Dr. Alston-Burnett said.
“I remembered this SOP development, and it’s improving the communication process with our students,” Sir G said. “The process still includes putting a note on the class door, but that is just part of the process.”
Something as simple as flying a flag on the college’s flagpole became complicated without an SOP.
The college’s Pride Alliance wanted to fly the acknowledged Pride flag during Pride Month at the college’s campuses, along with the American and state flags. But the college did not have a policy for flying any kind of flag, said Sara Cappaert, the college’s manager of scholarships and an active member of the college’s Pride Alliance.
An MATC District Board policy had to be written before the SOP could be crafted and any organizational flag could be raised.
“Suddenly it became a much larger task,” she said. “I didn’t think it would end up with us writing a board policy, but we did what we needed to do.”
With a board policy and SOP in place, the Pride Alliance raised Pride flags at campuses last June. “The process of everyone working together was smooth,” Cappaert said. “And now that we have policies and an SOP in place, it will be even smoother.”
- Start an SOP at SOP Request Form
- See completed SOPs at SOP Repository
- Questions on how to develop SOPs for your team’s work? Contact Gregory T. “Sir G” Ware at 414-297-7404 or wareg@matc.edu.