Happeo Unmuted
The Accidental Knowledge Manager & the Human Search Box | Happeo Unmuted Episode 16
The Accidental Knowledge Manager & the Human Search Box | Happeo Unmuted Episode 16Welcome to Happeo Unmuted, the podcast where we go beyond best practices to explore what really connects people at work. In this episode, Jesse Bourgeault-Trickey sits down with Jonathan Ralton, a digital transformation consultant with more than two decades of experience spanning technical consulting, product management, business analysis, and change leadership — with a career that began in the early days of SharePoint.Jonathan specializes in information architecture and taxonomy design, and is an active voice in the knowledge management community. In this conversation, he breaks down what good knowledge management actually looks like, why it's so often mistaken for content management, and why the hardest part of KM isn't the technology — it's getting people to make time for it.In this episode, Jonathan shares:✅ Why "content precedes design" — and what that means for every deliverable, not just websites✅ The difference between knowledge management and content management, and why conflating them holds organizations back✅ The "accidental knowledge manager" problem: why professional services teams struggle to make time for KM when it isn't billable✅ The "watermelon projects" story — how uncovering hidden risk across client projects became a real KM win✅ Why legacy content shouldn't sit stagnant, even when the underlying knowledge stays the same✅ The "best of breed" vs. "best of suite" tooling debate, and how to know which one fits your organization✅ Why some employees become a "human search box" instead of using the tools built for them✅ Why single source of truth applies to data and procedure, but not always to knowledge✅ Why enterprise search never delivered on its hype — and what it exposed instead✅ Why tools can never fix culture on their own — and what Field of Dreams gets wrong about technology adoption✅ Why AI recommendations need to show their reasoning to earn trust✅ The best practices Jonathan thinks we should actually unlearn — including "sprint zero"Whether you're a knowledge management professional, an internal communicator, or someone trying to build a genuine learning culture inside your organization, this episode is full of practical, hard-won perspective.🔗 Learn more about Happeo: https://www.happeo.com🎧 Subscribe for more episodes on internal communications, knowledge management, employee experience, and AI in the workplace.
