More on Corporate Directories

I have worked at a number of companies, and each time this entailed meeting lots of new people. I don't know about you, but sometime I can only remember the first or last name, and sometimes only the nickname e.g. Bob in the corner office. When I need to send an email or look up a phone number, the corporate directories often aren't very helpful.

There is a simple enhancement that can be added to corporate directories to significantly improve their usability, and that is listing people more than once, once by each name. Usually when this is proposed, I get a horrified look, but once people see it and use it, they really appreciate it.

As an example consider Robert Smith, also known as Bob. List him 3 times in the corporate directory, and the people can find him by first, last or nickname. In a small company this makes little difference, but once you are over a 1000 people, it really does make a difference. Suddenly the corporate directory becomes significantly more useful.

Note how Bob Smith appears 3 times, once for each name. That makes it really easy to find him.

This is but one example of a small improvement that adds to the "Continuous Improvement" bottom line.