Working Smarter Series: Part 2

A lot of people worry that AI is heading toward replacing workers, not supporting them. And let’s be honest: some organizations will use it that way. But small teams, nonprofits, and community-focused businesses don’t have to sit on the sidelines while bigger players reshape the landscape.

For us, scaling with AI tools isn’t about removing people from the process. It’s about giving teams a real shot at speeding up the work they already do: cutting duplicate tasks, improving consistency, and building systems they can actually refine over time.

In Part 1, we introduced the PRIME formula for making requests clearer. In Part 2, we’re turning that clarity into something you can use daily: simple, reusable AI workflow systems. The kind your team can copy, paste, and tweak until they feel second nature.

Before you build anything, you need one thing: a home for your systems.

Where Your AI Workflow Systems Should Live

 

Before you start building reusable prompts or frameworks, give them a home. A single place where your team knows to find them, use them, and improve them.

Keep Everything in One Shared Place

Use whatever your team checks daily:

• a shared Google Doc
• a Notion page
• project templates inside Asana or Monday
• a folder in your CRM
• your shared drive or intranet

It doesn’t need to be fancy. It just needs to be consistent. When prompts, instructions, and examples live in one spot, your team stops retyping the same requests and starts building on each other’s improvements.

Keep It Copy/Paste Simple

Every system in this article works the exact same way:

1. copy the prompt
2. paste it into your LLM (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.)
3. adjust as needed

That’s the entire setup. No new platform. No special software. Just repeatable instructions your team can depend on.

Build a Lightweight Feedback Loop

Each time someone uses a prompt:

• tighten a sentence
• add a missing rule
• refine the example
• save the updated version

Your systems evolve naturally, shaped by real work rather than theory. Part 3 will cover how these shared structures help teams stay aligned and supported.

From Clear Requests to Consistent Results

Clear communication helps your tools understand what you want. Systems help them understand how you think.

When you turn your reasoning into reusable instructions, you stop retyping, rewriting, and re-explaining. Instead of asking tools to help, you’re teaching them how you work. That shift is where consistency begins.

 

 

Simple example:
A one-off prompt looks like:
“Summarize this meeting.”

A reusable system sounds like:

• “Act as our project coordinator.”
• “Pull out decisions, deadlines, and owners from these notes.”
• “Return tasks grouped by project with clear next steps.”

Save that once and run it in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or whichever LLM fits your team’s workflow.

Why Clarity Beats Complexity

Most automation struggles come from unclear direction, not complicated software. Tools can’t guess your thinking. They can only follow the structure you give them.

When your instructions match your real decision-making process, even basic AI tools produce cleaner, more consistent results.

Real-world contrast:
“Help with our newsletter” gives you a mixed bag.
But:
“You are our communications assistant. Write a 300-word donor update using the notes below. Include three takeaways and a simple call to action.”
gives you something you can actually send.

Takeaways:

• Automation fails when clarity fails
• Structured instructions improve accuracy
• You don’t need advanced software, just repeatable thinking

The Advantage of Instruction Frameworks

Reusable instructions act like a lightweight playbook. They capture your logic once, then let your tools (and your team) apply it repeatedly.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, you create a standard your organization can reuse automatically.

Example:
A small team can build a “Client Update Framework”:

• warm opener
• one-sentence recap
• three clear next steps
• one decision prompt

Run that through any LLM and your updates immediately feel more consistent.

Takeaways:

• Frameworks are reusable logic, not rigid rules
• Systems teach tools how to think, not just what to output
• Consistency replaces repetition

How To Build Your Own System

You don’t need to code or learn a new platform. Think of this like training a

new team member: short, direct, and specific.

Once you capture your logic, your tools can follow it reliably.

Steps to try:

• define the role or function the tool should take on
• clarify the goal and what a successful result looks like
• note the rules or tone that guide your decisions
• provide a simple example to model the output

Starter template (copy/paste into any LLM):

• Role: “You are my [project coordinator / comms assistant / operations helper].”
• Goal: “Use the notes below to produce [tasks / an email / an update] my team can use immediately.”
• Rules: “Keep it clear. Use bullet points. Flag anything missing.”
• Example: “A good version looks like this: [insert quick example].”

Examples of Simple Systems That Save Hours

These systems work well for small teams and don’t require complicated setup.

Task Guide:
“You are my project coordinator. Convert these notes into tasks with owner, deadline, and priority.”

Template Instruction:
“You are my reporting assistant. Create a weekly update using this structure: wins, blockers, next steps.”

Content Framework:
“Use the structure: hook, value, CTA. Apply it to the topic below.”

Tiny systems. Big reductions in rework.

Why This Approach Works

Reusable systems remove uncertainty. When instructions follow a familiar shape, both your tools and your team know what success looks like.

You get:

• fewer rewrites
• shorter cycles
• cleaner communication
• more trust in your workflow

How To Make Systems Stick

The best systems get sharper as your team uses them. Start simple, refine over time, and revisit them as your needs evolve.

Tricks to try:

• capture your thinking before handing off a task
• save and reuse structures that work well
• tighten phrasing based on real results

Bringing It All Together

In Part 1, we focused on clarity. Here in Part 2, we turned that clarity into simple systems you can reuse throughout your day. In Part 3, we’ll show how to connect those systems across your team so everyone communicates the same way with less friction and more momentum.

When your communication is clear and your structure is repeatable, your tools stop slowing you down and start supporting the way your organization works. You spend less time re-explaining and more time moving projects forward.

Ready to Build Systems That Support Your Team?

If you want smoother workflows and fewer headaches, let’s talk through what’s getting in your team’s way, and how to fix it.