Using Automation To Manage Team Workflows

8 out of 10 businesses are missing out on Ai. I see this everyday in my calls. They jump straight to AI tools without understanding their processes first. Then wonder why their "automations" create more problems than they solve. Here's the proven framework that actually works: STEP 1: MAP YOUR PROCESSES FIRST Never automate a broken process. → List every touchpoint in your workflow → Identify bottlenecks and time-wasters → Note who handles each step → Find communication gaps Remember: You can only automate what you understand. STEP 2: START WITH HIGH-ROI TASKS Don't automate because it's trendy. Focus on what saves the most time: → Data entry between systems → Client onboarding workflows → Report generation → Follow-up sequences One good automation beats 10 fancy tools that don't work together. STEP 3: BUILD YOUR TECH FOUNDATION Most companies use 10+ disconnected tools. AI can't help if your data is scattered everywhere. → Centralize data in one source (Airtable works great) → Connect your core systems first → Then layer AI on top STEP 4: DESIGN AI AGENTS FOR SPECIFIC PROBLEMS Generic AI = Generic results. Build precise agents for precise problems: → Research and data analysis → Customer support responses → Content creation workflows → Internal process optimization Each agent needs specific inputs and defined outputs. STEP 5: TEST SMALL, SCALE SMART Don't automate your entire business at once. → Start with one small process → Get team feedback → Fix bottlenecks as you go → Scale what works Build WITH your team, not without them. The biggest mistake I see? Companies hire someone to build exactly what they ask for. Instead of finding someone who challenges their thinking and reveals what they're missing. Good automation is just process optimization. Nothing more. The result? → 30+ hours saved per month on onboarding → Delivery time cut in half → Capacity increased by 30% → Revenue multiplied without adding team members Your competitors are stuck switching between apps. You'll be dominating with seamless systems. Follow me Luke Pierce for more content on AI systems that actually work.

Nobody talks about this side of automation… But it’s the silent killer of 90% of systems that break. Why? Because most automations don’t fail from being slow. They fail because nobody on the team wants to use them. -- If your system spits out: → Messy Google Docs → Unstructured text → Walls of unusable AI output… You didn’t build automation. You built a new manual task. Real automation empowers your team: → Clean, structured outputs → Ready-to-use docs → Clear insights, no cleanup needed And the best part? You don’t need another $49/month SaaS tool. Just structure from day one. -- Here’s the trick we use all the time: Markdown → HTML → Google Docs This tiny formatting chain makes a massive difference: → Auto-generate titles, headers & bullet points → Add spacing for clean reading → Bold key info for faster scanning → Visually break up sections so docs feel human-made No more dumping AI output into Docs and hoping it looks clean. We use this to generate: → Client-ready content briefs → Sales call summaries → Repurposing blueprints → Reports that don’t need reformatting — Structured formatting = team adoption. Team adoption = scalable systems. Because the best systems don’t just automate work — They remove friction across your entire workflow.

20+ agents save me hours daily. Most people wait for AI to "get better" or for their company to provide training. Meanwhile, they're missing the obvious stuff happening right now. Here's what I learned building workflows that actually work: 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗽𝗶𝗱𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹. After coffee chats, I'd forget key insights within days. Built a simple workflow: Slack myself notes → copies to Google Sheet. Then added AI: now it creates follow-up calendar events, extracts discussion topics for next meeting, and builds my relationship "CRM". Started basic, became essential. 𝗧𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗸𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱. Everyone knows storytelling matters for career growth. Nobody does it because sitting down to write stories feels overwhelming. So I text ideas to Slack → agent saves to Notion → runs analysis/feedback → repeat with followups. Now I bank stories during my commute instead of procrastinating for months. 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗜 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻. Skip waiting for the "universal assistant" to solve everything for you. Build for your weird, specific habits. Those patterns become product ideas when you notice what you actually use. The one-person business isn't coming – it's here. While everyone debates job displacement, smart people are becoming force multipliers. Big platforms won't solve your niche problems. You will. Stop waiting. You don't need to be an engineer or know how to code. Building for hundreds of millions of users taught me: we all started exactly where you are now. Your repetitive tasks are someone else's $100M opportunity. Start building. What would you automate first? (Happy to share my exact workflows if helpful) #AI #Automation #ProductThinking #TechLeadership #FutureOfWork

I turned the most annoying 20 minute task of my job into 20 seconds. Here's the step-by-step breakdown: For years, I've been drowning in business card requests. Emails at all hours, random texts, people stopping by my office - all asking for the same thing but never giving me complete information. I'd spend 15-20 minutes per request just coordinating between employees, our designer, and placing orders. It was literally the least important but most time-consuming part of my week. Working with Claude (Anthropic's AI), I built my first AI agent that completely automates this workflow. Now when someone needs business cards, they fill out a simple form in Teams. The moment they hit submit: ✅ Data automatically saves to SharePoint ✅ A ClickUp task gets created for our designer with all the details ✅ Task gets assigned with a 3-day deadline ✅ I get notified when it's ready for ordering What used to take me 15-20 minutes of back-and-forth now happens in seconds. Zero manual work on my end. The crazy part? This entire system was built in a few hours using tools we already had - Power Apps, SharePoint, Teams, and Power Automate. No coding required. Here's my biggest takeaway: AI agents aren't just for tech companies. They're for anyone tired of repetitive tasks eating away at time that should be spent on strategic work. I'm a marketing leader at an oil and gas services company, not a programmer. If I can build this, anyone can. What repetitive task is driving you crazy? Maybe it's time to automate it. Next up: I'm eyeing our expense reporting process 👀

Ever feel like your team is stuck in an endless loop of manual data entry? (Automation Tip Tuesday 👇) That’s exactly where one of our clients — an education consulting firm — found themselves. They were juggling a whole tech stack of tools that didn’t “talk”  to each other, creating inefficiencies and double work. We started with a look into their sales workflow. 🔹 Sales data lived in HubSpot, but once a deal closed, someone had to manually update Asana to track project progress. 🔹 Internal teams worked from one Asana board, but clients needed visibility into their own project timelines — cue more manual updates. 🔹 With so much repetitive data entry, valuable time was being wasted on low-impact admin work. Here’s what we did: 🔗 HubSpot → Asana automation: We created an integration that auto-generates project tasks in Asana when a deal reaches a certain stage in HubSpot. No more copy-pasting! 📢 Internal and client boards sync: Internal progress updates in Asana now automatically reflect on client-facing Asana projects, reducing the back-and-forth. Less busywork, more productivity. By eliminating duplicate data entry, the team saved 10+ hours per week — time now spent on strategy and client success. When your tools work together, your team can focus on what really matters. Where is your team losing time? Drop a comment below! ⬇️ -- Hi, I’m Nathan Weill, a business process automation expert. ⚡️ These tips I share every Tuesday are drawn from real-world projects we've worked on with our clients at Flow Digital. We help businesses unlock the power of automation with customized solutions so they can run better, faster and smarter — and we can help you too! #automationtiptuesday  #automation #workflow #efficiency

AI adoption doesn’t happen through slide decks or when leaders buy subscriptions to a copilot—it happens when people feel the impact in their own work. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐒𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 At a recent company offsite, we ran an automation design sprint using n8n to help our departments eliminate repetitive tasks, free up time for high-impact work, and get hands-on with AI. We are definitely biased, but it seems like it was a solid success. 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 • Focused on one tool – People are overwhelmed by the speed of AI and all the tools and capabilities. We did the research, chose n8n as our automation platform (others include Make, Zapier), and simplified the choice for them. • Assigned an Automation Lead – Gave them time to ramp up, set up preconfigured APIs, and prep the environment. • Pre-reads & videos – Our automation leader met with departments in advance and shared primers so teams weren’t starting cold. 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 • Breakout sessions – Departments identified pain points and mapped potential automations. Each team had an assigned engineer to help execute or clear roadblocks. • Rapid prototyping – 1-hour workflow design → timeboxed builds. • Show & tell – Teams presented their automations, the "why" behind them, and their progress. Many were fully functional by the end. 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦  A month later, live automations are running across all teams—with more in the pipeline. And to make automation stick, we put an initial structure in place: • Automation Lead role formalized. • Department-level automation roadmaps created. • Engineering leads assigned until teams are self-sufficient. • Focus on training team members in each department. • Regular check-ins between teams and automation leads. • “Automation of the Week” updates to highlight wins. We’ll share more on what’s working (and what’s not) as we scale this. I am curious what other teams are doing on this front and how they are executing. Would love to hear in the comments or directly from folks.