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Where We Are
A teacher emails asking where to find the latest reimbursement form.
You know, with absolute certainty, that this information has been sent. Three times. In two different formats.
You also know you’ll now spend the next seven minutes searching through shared drives and email threads to find the link so you can resend it.
This happens constantly. And here’s what makes it exhausting: that teacher wasn’t being careless. They genuinely couldn’t find the information.
The real problem? We’re optimizing for delivery when we should be designing for findability.
What Findability Actually Means
Peter Morville, who coined the term “ambient findability” in his book by the same name, defines it as “the quality of being locatable or navigable,” that is, the ability to find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime.
Not just receive it. Find it again later.
In fact, the International Plain Language Federation puts findability at the core of their definition:
“A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information.”
Notice the sequence: find, understand, use. Finding comes first.
Because when people can’t find what they need, they don’t keep searching. They email you. Again.
Why This Matters
The Time Tax: Every “where did you send that?” email costs seven minutes. Multiply that across your team, across a week, and you’re looking at hours spent being human search engines instead of doing actual work.
The Exhaustion Cycle: Your team sends more emails because the first ones didn’t work. More reminders. More channels. More everything. But volume doesn’t fix a findability problem; it makes it worse.
What Actually Works: When information lives in predictable places and communications point to those places, people stop asking. The difference isn’t more communication, but findable communication.
The Three Questions Framework
Before you send documents or important information by email, ask:
— What is this? (Why pay attention now?)
— Where does it live permanently? (Where will I find this in two weeks?)
— How do I find it again? (What’s the path back?)
These map to how humans actually search: recognizing what they need, knowing where permanent information lives, understanding the retrieval path.
How to Implement
Start With Your Single Source of Truth
Here’s the relief: you don’t need to create one massive repository where everything lives.
You need one reliable home per information type.
Think of it like your actual home. Your scissors live in the kitchen drawer. Not sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes in the bedroom, sometimes in your car. One place. So when someone asks “where are the scissors?” you don’t have to think about it.
Same principle for school information.
Every piece of information gets exactly one permanent address. When you communicate about it, you’re giving directions to that address, not stuffing a copy of everything into your email.
Related: Post 01:The Single Source Principle explains this foundation.
Apply the Framework
Here’s what this looks like in practice:
Before:
“Reminder: Wellness Week Celebration. Details shared on the newsletter.”
After:
Wellness Week Celebration This Friday on the Tracking Field
What: School closes 1:00 PM Friday for Wellness Week celebration.
Where: Early dismissal details posted on our school calendar. Export to your phone for automatic notifications.
How to find later: www.school.edu/calendar → Filter by “Special Events”
Takes 30 seconds more to write. Saves hours of follow-up.
Real Example
A school I worked with had four calendars: elementary, secondary, athletics, and school-wide. The leadership team preferred not to consolidate them. Instead, we designed for findability.
We answered the three questions for every calendar-related communication:
What: Which calendar has this event?
Where: Links to all four calendars live on the teacher portal
How to find later: Access the portal → Calendar page → Select calendar type → Add to your personal calendar app (toggle on/off as needed)
We added this exact language to every onboarding document and session, every schedule-related email, and every event announcement.
Consistency beats perfection.
Those “when is the report card timeline?” emails dropped significantly. The findability problem got solved even though the multiple-calendar problem didn’t.
The principle: You don’t need perfect architecture. You need predictable findability.
This Week’s Move
Pick one communication type generating the most “where do I find that?” emails.
Answer all three questions explicitly in your next instance, then watch what happens to your inbox.
➡️ Want help getting started? I’ve created an AI-powered Findability Audit that walks you through nine diagnostic questions, scores your current findability, and gives you specific next steps based on where you’re struggling.
If answering three questions saves 30 minutes this week, that’s time back for work that actually moves your school forward.
This isn’t about perfect communications. It’s about findable communications.
Your Experience
Which communication will you test this framework on first? And what’s making you choose that one?
Hit reply and let me know! I’d love to hear what you’re tackling and why it’s at the top of your list.
Systematically yours,
About the Author:
G (short for Gitane) is co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at EKG Collective, helping international schools turn communication complexity into systematic clarity. Learn more at ekgcollective.com.