Building a Creative Workflow for Transparency and Longevity
In a faith community of over 1,200 people, five weekly services, and nine distinct ministry focuses, the communication and creative needs are vast.
On any given week, the two-person communications team acts as an internal marketing agency, overseeing the church-wide communications strategy while producing specific creative deliverables for each ministry.
The Challenges of a Memory-Based Workflow
The process of how this work got done lived almost entirely in the brains of two people: a Communications Pastor (let’s call her Lanni) and a Design Director (let’s call her Peri). They were managing a large volume of requests through a combination of a Google Form and an internal Meta tool that was being phased out
*Moment of silence for Facebook Workplace.*
For the communications team, the lack of a shared, visible system meant that every project required a high level of manual coordination. For the rest of the staff, it meant they were often unsure of where their projects stood in the queue or what kind of support they would receive.
Aside from wanting a smoother workflow, the impetus for change was both proactive and personal. Lanni, who first joined the staff nearly 18 years ago, wanted to ensure that future leaders of her team would be set up for success when she eventually reached retirement. But there was a more immediate pressure: life happens. Between chronic illness flare-ups, maternity leaves, and the ebb and flow of ministry work, the team had experienced firsthand how difficult it was to delegate and pick up the pieces when the process wasn’t documented.
They were ready to trade a memory-based process for a shared system where the roadmap was clear to everyone.
Evaluating the Right Project Management Tools
Before adding a new platform to the mix, we started by looking at the tools the staff was already using. I wanted to understand their current habits and see if we could solve the problem with a tool they already owned.
Because the church operates as a collection of largely independent ministry focuses, their toolkit had naturally become piecemeal over the last 20 years. Some ministries used Google Docs, others relied on specialized platforms like Church Center for volunteer coordination, and Lanni was using Basecamp for her own task management. While these tools served individual needs, nothing was being used staff-wide to manage the high-volume creative pipeline.
Another factor: the platform they used for internal communication was being dissolved. This meant I was looking for a project management tool and a communication tool (or one that could effectively do both). I explored three main avenues for consolidation:
- Church Center: While this is a strong tool for industry-specific needs, its workflow functionality revolves around people rather than deliverables.
- Google Workspace: Since they were already in the ecosystem, I looked at whether Google’s native task and chat features could handle the load. While Chat felt like a natural transition from Facebook Workplace, Google Tasks lacked the automation and project format needed.
- Basecamp: I evaluated if the system Lanni was already using for herself could be scaled to the larger team. This was a strong option for communication, but it also fell short in the automation department.
- Honorable Mentions: I vetted many potential options and provided a price and functionality comparison of potential options, like ClickUp, Trello, Monday.com, and Slack…along with a list of dishonorable mentions in a section titled “Tools I Wouldn’t Recommend to My Worst Enemy.”
Designing an Automated Operations Strategy
At the end of the day, a combination of existing and new tools proved the most effective. The staff transitioned internal communications to Google Chat (already included in their Workspace subscription) and implemented Asana as the engine for project management. This pairing provided the depth of logic needed for the communications team while keeping daily communication simple for the rest of the staff.
Instead of Lanni and Peri manually sorting through rows of a spreadsheet, I wanted them to have a workflow that kicks off automatically when the form is submitted. Now, as soon as a staff member hits “submit,” the system instantly:
- Maps form responses into custom fields for easy sorting and subsequent logic.
- Generates one of six core task lists (ranging from 6 to 40 steps) based on the request’s priority and ministry.
- Dynamically sets proportionate due dates based on the event date.
- Assigns tasks to the correct staff members based on whose input is needed.
What used to be a fully manual triage is now a 60-second automated workflow resulting in one of 46 unique project pathways.
Strategic Alignment Through Clear Documentation
However, the value of the project went beyond the technical build-out. Documenting the process served as a forced clarity exercise. Through our discussions, Lanni had the arena to specify how work was supposed to flow, who was responsible for each deliverable, and where the process needed built-in flexibility. We spent time testing and revising the logic through several rounds to ensure the system actually reflected the realities of their work.
To protect the integrity of these complex systems, I provided a technical reference sheet that mapped out every automated rule, trigger, and condition. Because management tools often lack an undo function for deleted logic—ask me how I know—this served as both a backup and a way to review the information outside of the rule editor. It ensures that as the organization grows, they have a clear record of why the system was built this way.
Onboarding and Team Adoption
To support the rollout, I focused on making the transition as simple as possible for the staff. For Lanni, I personally organized her “My tasks” view in Asana with specific filters and sorting so she could manage her own workload more effectively. For the larger team, I provided two key resources:
- A guide on notification settings to ensure the team stayed informed without being overwhelmed by constant pings.
- A clear, at-a-glance infographic that explained the different priority levels. This provided immediate clarity on what kind of support and deliverables were included for each request and was linked directly within each project for easy access.
The Results: Clarity and Capacity
The result is more than just a faster workflow; it provides a sense of stability for the entire staff’s marketing efforts. For the communications team, the new system acts as a safety net. In a small, high-impact organization, an unplanned absence can often cause additional stress. Now, if a team member needs to step away, the remaining staff can filter tasks by due date and reassign priorities in minutes, alleviating the burden of trying to remember the status of a dozen moving parts.
On a proactive note, this structure allows the team to plan for long-term transitions, such as upcoming leaves or busy seasons, with confidence. Instead of reacting to requests as they arrive, they can work months ahead, knowing that every deliverable is already documented.
This clarity extends to the rest of the staff as well. Staff members are no longer submitting requests into an information void. The moment a request for creative support is made, the requester gains immediate visibility into the process. They know exactly when each step is expected to be completed and what is needed from them to keep the project on track.
The Final Takeaway
If there is one universal truth from this project, it is this: Your attention is a finite resource. Whether you are a nonprofit leader managing both the logistical and emotional labor of a community or a business owner pursuing a core passion, you cannot afford to waste your mental energy on keeping things straight in your head.
Intentional process design isn’t about adding bureaucracy; it’s about freeing up your brain for the things that actually matter.
In the long term, documenting your process is a gift to the person who will eventually take over your role, and to the people around them who will be affected by that transition. You don’t want the next person to be a carbon copy of you, but you also don’t want them to start from scratch or cause disruption to the larger team. Providing a foundation ensures they can move the mission forward rather than spending their first year just getting the lay of the land.
At the end of the day, systems exist to serve people, not the other way around. When you trade your memory-based workflows for documentation and automation, you aren’t just solving today’s to-do list—you’re freeing up the mental bandwidth to focus on the work you love and you’re building a foundation that allows your vision to outlast your daily presence.
Brenna
Operations strategist, workflow nerd, and the person behind Ictus Solutions. Writing about the systems that keep businesses in rhythm.