At the end of the one-day workshop, participants will be able to:

• Strengthen SOP quality, consistency, and usability
• Improve SOP review and approval effectiveness
• Reduce operational risk through clearer procedures

FOUNDATIONS AND WRITING STRONG SOPS

1. SOP Fundamentals and Writing Mindset

Objective: Align understanding before writing

• What SOPs are (and are not)
• SOP vs guidelines vs workflows vs playbooks
• When SOPs fail: common writing mistakes
• SOP lifecycle overview (create → review → approve → use → update)
• Group critique: “Why do people avoid SOPs?”

Identify 1 poor SOP practice from participants’ own context

2. SOP Structure and Template Creation

Objective: Build a clear, usable SOP template

• Core components of a strong SOP:
  • Purpose and Scope
  • Roles and Responsibilities
  • Step-by-step procedures
  • Decision points & exceptions
  • References and links
• Writing for usability (clarity, brevity, action verbs)
• Hands-on: Walk through of a model SOP template

Participants co-create or adapt a template for their organisation

3. Writing Clear and Actionable SOP Content

Objective: Improve SOP writing quality

• Writing techniques for SOPs
  • Plain language
  • One action per step
  • Consistent terminology
• Handling complex steps and dependencies
• Visual aids: flowcharts, tables, decision trees
• Rewrite exercise: improve a poorly written SOP section

Convert a process description into SOP steps

4. Analysing SOP Content (Quality Check)

Objective: Teach how to evaluate SOPs, not just write them

• SOP content analysis:
  • Completeness
  • Clarity
  • Usability
  • Risk coverage
• Identifying:
  • Missing steps
  • Ambiguous instructions
  • Over-documentation
• SOP review using a structured checklist

Peer feedback session

“Good SOPs don’t just document work — they make work easier, safer, and faster.”

“Sunny is a clever specifications writer – knows when to give, when to keep – good for those of us dealing with data overload.” – PUB

“I half expect the course to be boring, and the other half to be difficult. Sunny made both ends meaningful.”  – PA

“Sunny made technical writing look easy, and specs writing appear appealing. Not an easy task when we have too much info and too little space” – MOM

“The course by Dr Sunny gives us very good overview, guidelines and examples of how to draft good public papers.” – MINDEF

A fully hands-on workshop using Case Study and Best Practices

Staff Officers who either have to write SOPs and specifications or provide details for specs writers. The course will help them to avoid the pitfalls in a specs document and deal with contingencies and conflicts.

Dr Sunny Goh is a Trainer of Trainers (TOT) and has taught many writing coaches to teach writing programmes he has designed for government servants and private sector officers. He was head of the International directorate in Mindef’s Defence Policy Office, where he has written Cab Memos, budget papers and presented Singapore’s position at international fora. He was a member of the SAF Scholars Selection Board and chairman of a university’s Resource Panel.

He was also a Desk Editor at The Straits Times, where he taught reporting and interviewing skills at its School of Journalism. In all, his participants had included CEOs, professors, staff writers, technical specialists, undergraduates and students. It doesn’t matter how high a participant’s work status may be – all that mattered is a penchant for learning.

As a volunteer, he was a Mediator with the Ministry of Law, a Council Member of the Singapore Red Cross Society and writes regularly for the local and regional media.