You’re here.  Your goal is over there. Identifying the steps in between those two points and mapping out a plan to get from one to the other is called “workflow creation.”  It’s a daunting process that includes automating tasks and assigning tasks to create a cohesive set of rules to reach your goal.

How can you get there without breaking the bank?

The first step, before putting anything in writing is to understand that building a good workflow can take time.  Manage your time expectations and make sure it’s realistic.  If you have an entire staff that is part-time, your workflow will take longer to identify and build. Building a workflow can take time, because you must include planning, processing, tweaking, and testing,

There are two different types of workflow for small organizations.  A project workflow has a limited time span and an end date.  A process workflow is one that your organization will use on a daily or weekly basis.

After that, it comes down to identifying the right workflow, one that will fit in to your staff’s skills and your organization’s budget and then creating the policy to accommodate those things.

Project Workflow

In order to create a workflow for a special project, you would generally need to group a series of one-time tasks in order to accomplish a goal.  The first, and sometimes most difficult, step is to identify the goal.  Different members of your organization may have different goals for their particular department and all these different goals need to be incorporated.  For example, the bookkeeper may have a goal of getting expense receipts from volunteers in a more timely manner, while the board member has a goal to spread awareness of your cause to as many people as possible.  The steps for each department or each goal may look like this:

• Identify the goal
• Create a series of steps involved to reach the goal, taking into account the resources available
• List any tasks and documents involved in each step and make these easy to do and use
• Identify the order that each task needs to occur in, keeping in mind that some tasks may need more than one step or timeline.
• Assign tasks to a person, if necessary (some tasks may be automated)
• Set a duration for each task and step
• Determine what criteria will be used to pinpoint success

Projects can be completed using project management tools or software (like Microsoft Project).  For a smaller organization, though, the learning curve and processing time for using software may add time and money to the project, when it may be needless.  Tailor your tools to your organization.

Project workflow creation involves the onset, planning, design, execution, monitoring, control, and closing of a team’s specific goal, usually involving a certain set of criteria that needs to be met.

Process Workflow

Building a process workflow, on the other hand, involves defining tasks that need to be completed throughout the organisation, which may include ongoing projects and grouped tasks, or seasonal projects that will be repeated. It also requires measuring, reporting, tweaking, improving that process over time, with the goal in mind.  Your organization’s goals may be to increase productivity and/or decrease costs, or your goal may be more altruistic and difficult to measure, such as creating awareness.