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Bronwyn Swartz

~ Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Bronwyn Swartz

Monthly Archives: December 2015

My 10 of the Best

28 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by Bronwyn Swartz in General, Quality Stuff

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I’m missing my children terribly. It’s really difficult to even find the words to express my feelings. And after trying all sorts of different ways to deal with my longing for them, eventually tonight I just started working again. Early start to the New Year, why not.

So inspired by my brother’s blog posts with all his 10 of the best lists, I have decided that I need to produce a 10 of the best list too! So I’ve been munching and crunching and pondering and then I got it! 10 of the best tips for writing SOPs baby!

And of course I’m personally motivated to blog about this because I managed the SOP matrix at the pharma company that I consulted for. Badly written SOPs wastes everyone’s time. It wasted my time as the person who supports the writer, the SOP reviewer’s time and the time of the end user- the reader who is supposed to ultimately make use the SOP. Wasted time costs money!

A well planned and written SOP should be the tool one can use at 2am when no one else is around. Interestingly though, not so long ago someone countered this statement I made, by saying that ‘someone cannot perform a task if they not signed off as competent’. On paper yes. I don’t really feel the need to counter his counter…..all I’ll sheepishly add is in a perfect world yes, and we do stay in a perfect world…. don’t we? Of course we do.

So here goes:

#1: The most common misunderstanding I came across – A SOP is a process, not a policy. If you can’t flowchart it, then it does not belong in a document entitled SOP.

#2: The person who performs the work/task being detailed in the SOP, must draft the SOP. The most useless SOPs I’ve come across were written by a person in the company who wrote that SOP just for the sake of getting the SOP in place (usually to pass an audit!). It’s an absolute waste of time and resources to have a valueless SOP. I promise you, it will confuse someone along the line. It only degrades your quality system – does not improve it. Ironic really, it’s just not “quality”.

#3: Train, and train, and re-train and re-fresher train your people to write SOPs. That’s an investment worth gold. Training an organisations’ employees is empowering them – this includes SOP writing. There is nothing difficult or complicated about writing SOPs, yet many people are ‘put off’ by it. I can only assume it’s because they haven’t been properly trained. Writing a good SOP that can repeatedly be used to train others to do a different task, makes work easier for the writer of that SOP in the long run. An additional advantage, is the organisation becomes less dependent on tacit knowledge.

#4: Use plain language. Write for the end user, and remember that nine times out of ten, that end user person is a trainee.

#5: Use active language. An SOP is written to describe an action! It is perfectly ok, no…. it is a requirement that it sounds like an instruction. The procedural steps are not mere suggestions. The SOP is written to describe a set of actions that must be performed.

#6: Embrace white space. This tip is influenced by my editing experience. Some white space in an instructional or informative text makes the text easier to digest.

#7: Standardise all the SOPs in your organisation. Readers in your organisation will get used to the standard format and will find it really beneficial. Your SOPs will be easier to understand for end users. This is very important. Variation is the enemy of quality – do not let variation creep in with your SOPs.

#8: Keep it simple. If you can get away with a simple flowchart with responsibilities and timelines, then do that. Use tables if you can, bullet points and numbered lists. Of course you do all of this while being mindful of your standardised format and other regulatory requirements your organisation might have.

#9: Test drive every SOP before it becomes active. Strange but true, there are simple steps that the writer forgets about because it’s second nature to that person. It’s a very good idea to get someone who is unfamiliar with the procedure to read it for logical and understanding, and with the person who wrote the SOP, perform the function. Doing this save you from having to revise a recently activated SOP due to a simple oversight.

#10: Jason, you are the King of 10 of the best lists, because I can sincerely seriously could only come up with 9 above!

 

 

 

Image

A very special birthday today

25 Friday Dec 2015

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Posted by Bronwyn Swartz | Filed under Family and Friends

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HSBC Cape Town 7s

15 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by Bronwyn Swartz in Family and Friends, My Adventures, Uncategorized

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So I was fortunate enough to go to both days (Saturday and Sunday) of the Cape Town 7s. It was super awesome off the hook cool! The blitzbokke were playing rather shabbily the first day – I really didn’t have high hopes that they would make it into the finals. But the blitzbokke gave their fans the best gift ever, They won the finals!

The vibe around the stadium was electrifying. Now I also know, the 7s tournament is like a big costume party. People come and hang around the stadium for the day, eating, drinking, chatting to mates and watching some lekker fast paced rugby. Fun times. Great way to kick off summer.

Viva le Blitzbokke! Go bokke, go bokke, go bokke! Ma se kinners, julle is te Oulik! Epic weekend. Doing it next year again for sure.

The Scene of the Action
The Scene of the Action
Minions and my BFF
Minions and my BFF
Some more Femiliyum
Some more Femiliyum
The parentals and baby boetie
The parentals and baby boetie
The Robster, Minions and I
The Robster, Minions and I

Stuffs and Stuffses

09 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by Bronwyn Swartz in Family and Friends, General, Purely Academic, Uncategorized

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Hmmm well, I don’t ever want to post long boring posts but again so much has transpired since the last time I posted anything . In fact, when some of the events happened I was just gobsmacked, and I didn’t have words to express what was going on. But I’ll make an attempt and try my darn best to be as brief as possible.

CPUT… Where do I begin, Fubar?, maybe that sounds rude, but by gosh golly darn it holly har. Then we were writing the 9 Nov, then student protests postponed it to the 16th Nov, then more student protest postponed it and lecturers were chased out of our offices . The campus was vandalized. We were told to stay away from work, then told to come back and just before we went back, we were told to stay away again. Then we went back, then the student forced lecturers out of the our offices again. We were told exams would be the 24th Nov.

Then students flooded the exam venue. Police descended on the campus. Student protested in a very threatening way, sticks in hand. Police shot at them. I witnessed this, heard the shots and saw the smoke, the police running with riot shields and helmets. I left the campus. I cried. I spent time trying to placate my own students who were justifiably angry and upset and frustrated. After that my back went into spasm, and that night I developed a migraine of note. I reckon I had a half a bottle of rescue remedy drops, four panados and four relicalms. I should have just had a half jack of whisky. My balloon deflated. I half heartedly stagger onto campus every now and then. I refused to dye my hair out of defiance – I’m weird I know, I need some time, but I’m hopeful next year will bring some renewed vigour. We hoping that final exams happen next year from 11 Jan to 22 Jan – that same time that I’m registered to attend the African Doctoral Academy Summer School. What a Bugger-up…That’s the summarized version

PhD Matters…Moving on to nicer things, through it all I managed to make contact with my principal supervisor at DUT. And she saw my work and she gave me feedback already. Big smile. Dr. Shalini Singh is on the ball. Step in the right direction. Her comments didn’t sting as much as Prof Moll’s did because most of them are because I have never consulted with her before. However, more than that the happiest of happy news is I am registered for a DPhil: Quality Management, and not a DTech Quality. It’s just a name difference, but quite frankly I much prefer the DPhil: Quality Management! She is coming to visit us at CPUT for two days next week for our first proper consultations with her. And we have been summoned to attend a Post Graduate meeting in which we will have to present our work, with a Gantt Chart to the rest of the Post Graduate students. Yes, yes indeed, moving along nicely, I dare say.

My Dad’s 60th Birthday…

2015-11-28 19.28.13

Death by chocolate, My handiwork

And Robin’s Dad’s 93rd Birthday…

2015-11-21 07.39.04

Rob’s dad asked for a ‘Blonde’ for his birthday…and smart kids like Rob and I figured out just what to do, to make sure that he got his birthday wish – some more of my handiwork

Finally Movies under the stars…The minions and I and our friend Sara watched Armageddon at the Galileo open air cinema at Kirstenbosch. Lovely, lovely experience. I would highly recommend it for your to-do list this summer. Tickets are R79, but for extra R20 you can get a blankie and a chair and you can either  buy food and wine there, or take along a picnic basket.

2015-12-02 19.00.53

Looking cool with my blue shades

 

Couple of other fun stuff we have planned. Cape Town Sevens this weekend and a trip to Robben Island early next year…School’s out and summer holidays are here…Let the fun begin

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