SOPs - Streamlining Obsolescence for Professionals
The death of the Standard Operating Procedure for Professionals
Standard Operating Procedures. I‘m sure you’ve probably come across them. Simply put, it’s the way that people do things. In a business or company context, it’s the way that employees should do certain tasks - kind of like a checklist.
So whether it’s you, Bob, Shelley or Karen doing the same task in the same company, the output looks and feels the same; and in theory - has the same value, and can be tracked by the same metrics.
They’re a staple of the business documentation for larger organisations, and one of the first things you’re acquainted with during your onboarding.
And I think they’re now largely irrelevant from this point onwards.
The AI machine gun that’s slaughtering many of the other workplace tasks has now got SOPs in the crosshairs.
Because if a task is so repeatable that it can have a standard operating procedure allocated to it; then frankly AI is going to be doing it from now onwards. Better and faster than you ever have. And on top of that - more detailed, more consistent and it’ll probably even analyze its own performance at the end of it too.
The even more bizarre thing, is that the SOP it’s following was probably written by itself as well.
We’re about to step into an age where we need to redefine what a professional actually is. Competence can no longer be measured by ability to follow a set of rules and procedures; as that ability is incomparable to even the current iterations of technology.
And that attainment gap is only going to get larger; and the less you attempt to standardize yourself, the more chance you've got at surviving.
So for me, I’m re-adjusting my focus to the things which the AI is going to be incomparable to my ability. There’s thousands of professionals about to exist in workplaces where the companies are going to have to nurture a vastly different skillset to one they’re used to managing and demanding.
Fortunately this is a skill I’ve been honing for some time. As a project manager, much of the skill is finding comfort in existing outside of the standard - the unforeseen changes, the unique situation and the emergency adaptations. Waiting to accommodate the standard response is probably going to push it over schedule or budget, neither of which is desirable.
AI can process tasks in a certain way, to produce an output within certain parameters - all done extremely rapidly.
But the human brain possesses more bandwidth, and a deeper understanding of the often hundreds of contextual pieces of information that decisions need to be made in sympathy to.
Could AI do this?
Probably, with enough training; but it’s not the right tool for the job. Every situation is different; and to get the right answer, you’re going to need to input every piece of contextual information relevant to the current scenario. By the time you’ve done that, a human could have already done that and taken a decision in a fraction of the time.
This is the shift that needs to occur in the workplace - up to now, the aim of companies has been to use employees to mimic computer system characteristics - in an attempt to minimise error and increase efficiency. But now, that rulebook needs to be ripped up, and employees need to be used for their human characteristics.
This is going to be an interesting dynamic to witness. It could be the case that an employee’s remuneration becomes dependent on their ability to make decisions that are in close alignment with the company’s values; or for exceptional creativity and adaptability. It’s less about your output per se, and more about your ability to facilitate the output from the whole organisation.
It all needs to change - the way resumes are written; the way employees are hired; the performance indicators they’re tracked against; the way their salary is assessed; and the way they’re trained.
The winning businesses over the next few years are going to be those who recognise this, and shift their culture and values proactively. Those who do will see unprecedented productivity - work completed at a rapid rate by AI, off the back of direction from humans educated and rewarded to make quick decisions in the best interests of the company objectives.
Those who do, will eclipse the progress of those who don’t.
TH