PMO Strategies

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (Leadership) Hey, IMPACT Driver! There are some huge differences between project management or functional management roles and the PMO leader role. In fact, it’s evolving right before our eyes, and I want to make sure you understand how to thrive in this role. If you: are thinking about moving into a PMO leadership role, are new PMO leader, or have been a PMO leader for a while, but want to be sure you’re doing all that you can to be successful,   then this episode is perfect for you, IMPACT Driver. In this episode, we’ll look at how this role might differ from your prior role and important steps to take to ensure you’re building credibility fast and showing value fast. By the way, if you’ve been on the fence about joining the IMPACT Engine PMO program, this is the time to do it! I guide you on exactly what you need to do to shift both your mindset and your actions in our step-by-step program. Students join us: BEFORE they start the new role so they can hit the ground running and show real results fast, as soon as they start the new role so they can have an instant plan for the first 90 days – which goes a LONG way with business leaders, to elevate their existing PMO (and own leadership capability) to get results much faster than they ever would on their own,   because time your time is valuable, and you need to make an IMPACT fast. There’s so much I can share with you and do to guide you on this journey. Don’t go it alone. You’ll see right away when you join that it works and that you’ll get everything you need to be successful. Click here to get started.   Enjoy!   Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Business Acumen (Strategic and Business Management) Hey there, IMPACT Driver! Many organizations are adopting Agile methods to get things done and this has sparked some opportunities and changes for the PMO. In episode 160, Ben Chamberlain and I discussed the role of the PMO in driving business agility. In this episode, we’re going to dive deeper into one of the places that many organizations lose their way when trying to achieve greater business agility – confusing big “A” Agile and little “a” agility. We’ll look at how you can avoid confusing “going Agile” from an implementation perspective with the brilliant opportunity you have in the PMO to lead your organization toward a more adaptive and responsive operating model.   Ben Chamberlain is the Chief Product Officer for UMT360 and is responsible for the strategic direction and worldwide go-to-market activities for UMT360’s Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) software solutions. He is an accomplished enterprise software executive with more than a decade of experience of building innovative SPM solutions that have helped global 2000 companies drive business transformation and increase their business agility.   Enjoy!     Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (Leadership) Hey, IMPACT Driver! Have you ever had a boss, colleague, or even a consultant take credit for your ideas? You do the hard work and put together all the content and then someone else presents it as their own in a meeting you are not even invited to attend? Ugh, so frustrating! I get it and I had that experience more times than I can count when I was in your shoes. In this episode, I’m going to share a few things I learned about how to handle these situations and even use them to your advantage so that you can achieve your ultimate goals with your PMO and organization. By the way, if you’ve been on the fence about joining the IMPACT Engine PMO program, this is the time to do it! We’re going to put plans in place for each of our coaching students in August in our monthly hot topic coaching session! It’s critical that PMO leaders address that perfect balance of working in vs. working on the PMO so that they can continue to build credibility quickly while also addressing the long-term strategic benefits that the PMO needs to become the IMPACT Engine your organization needs to thrive. Enjoy!   Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (Leadership) Hey, IMPACT Driver! Do you know what it really takes to step into a PMO leadership role? Hint: What got you here, won’t get you there. In today's PMO environments, a clear understanding of the PMO leadership role and responsibility is essential for a successful evolution, from project, program, and portfolio management roles to that coveted PMO leadership role. How do you know when you’re ready and what do business leaders really need from the PMO and you as the PMO leader? In this episode, I’m joined by Ruffin Veal III to explore the evolving expectations around PMO leadership and what you must know to perform in this role successfully now and well into the future. You’ll learn some of the ways the role has shifted and how to determine if you’re ready to thrive.   Ruffin Veal III, founder and Principal of Ruffin Veal and Associates, Inc., is an information technology and management professional whose career spans over three decades. He has been employed both full-time and as a consultant in multiple industries including manufacturing, banking, retail, and government. He is an educator, coach and mentor who provides continuing education to the project management community. He is also a published author whose industry related articles can be seen in the Project Management Institute's (PMI) Virtual Library as well as in national and international publications. Ruffin is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science and an M.S. degree in Project Management.   Enjoy!     Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (Leadership) Hey there, IMPACT Driver! Have you ever heard your business leaders say this? “OK, great! While you’re building the PMO can you also just manage a few projects, too?” WHAT?? In this episode, we’re going to address something that many of you are faced with when starting a new PMO – that request to “just” manage projects while you’re focused on trying to build a strong and solid PMO foundation for the organization. If you: Are a PMO of one person and they are trying to squeeze every last drop of effort from your soul, are trying to move up from managing projects to building a solid foundation of sustainable services and capabilities to deliver more value, or have a PMO team doing projects but listened to the podcast I did about working IN vs. working ON the PMO and realize you’re not spending enough time ON the PMO,   then this episode is exactly what you need to find a better path forward. Don’t bother trying to sell the PMO to get out of this vicious cycle. Instead, do what I teach you to do in this real-life example from my PMO leadership days!   By the way, if you’ve been on the fence about joining the IMPACT Engine PMO program, this is the time to do it! We’re going to put plans in place for each of our coaching students next month to address that perfect balance for each of their specific situations so that they can continue to build credibility quickly while also addressing the long-term strategic benefits that the PMO needs to become the IMPACT Engine your organization needs to thrive. Enjoy!     Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Ways of Working (Technical) Hey there, IMPACT Driver! As a PMO leader, you may not realize that understanding and effectively supporting business agility is crucial, whether you are driving business transformation or simply responding to unforeseen disruptions. But achieving business agility requires the right processes and tools that go beyond managing execution. In this episode, I’m joined by Ben Chamberlain, Chief Product Officer for UMT360, to discuss why strategic portfolio management is what every aspiring agile business needs to succeed.     Ben Chamberlain is the Chief Product Officer for UMT360 and is responsible for the strategic direction and worldwide go-to-market activities for UMT360’s Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) software solutions. He is an accomplished enterprise software executive with more than a decade of experience of building innovative SPM solutions that have helped global 2000 companies drive business transformation and increase their business agility.   Enjoy!     Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (Leadership) Hey, IMPACT Driver! How much time do you spend working IN the PMO vs. working ON the PMO? If you feel like you’re constantly busy but not necessarily making progress toward your bigger PMO goals or if you’re spending so much time working ON services and capabilities that your stakeholders are not seeing any real tangible value, then you need to correct that balance fast! In this episode, I’ll explain what I mean when I say, “Give them what they want before you give them what they need.” And why it’s critical to do both in the right balance for you and your PMO to be successful long-term. By the way, if you’ve been on the fence about joining the IMPACT Engine PMO program, this is the time to do it! We’re going to put plans in place for each of our coaching students next month to address that perfect balance for each of their specific situations so that they can continue to build credibility quickly while also addressing the long-term strategic benefits that the PMO needs to become the IMPACT Engine your organization needs to thrive. Enjoy!     Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Ways of Working (Technical) Hey there, IMPACT Driver! What do you think of when you hear agile and governance in the same sentence? What about if you throw in culture? Believe it or not, they are actually all parts of the same high-IMPACT roadmap for organizational success – or another way to think about it – they go together just like peanut butter and jelly! 😊 In this episode, I’m joined by my friend, Fatimah Abbouchi. She shares how organizations are adopting and adapting Agile to bridge the divide between delivery and governance and what organizational support structures are needed to support this agility in a creative way. I just love how Fatimah simplifies both the components of governance and the various levels of governance in practice.     Fatimah Abbouchi is the Founder and CEO of Agile Management Office®; a thought leader providing governance solutions for organizations to manage and govern projects in the agile era. Fatimah is also the founder of Return of the Panda®, a not-for-profit focused on improving the mental health of millions of anxiety sufferers worldwide. As a successful businesswoman, Fatimah has been supporting businesses from start-ups to enterprises internationally for the past 18 years as an advisor, educator, and award-winning thought leader.   Enjoy!     Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (Leadership) Hey, IMPACT Driver! What is the minimum company size for a PMO to make sense? Should it have at least 100 employees?  1000? How do you know if a PMO will work and what the PMO should do?  I’m often asked how big an organization “needs to be” for a PMO to make sense and you might be surprised at my answer…  In this episode, I’m addressing this question and sharing an example of one tiny organization we worked with to setup a PMO that made a huge IMPACT.  Enjoy!     Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (Leadership) Hey there, IMPACT Driver! There’s a big difference between managing up and sucking up. Managing up is not a set of insincere political maneuvers designed to fake your way to success. In this discussion, I’m joined by my pal, Andy Kaufman to talk and explore practical approaches to building and maintaining a productive relationship with a boss or sponsor. You’ll learn why waiting for your boss to change doesn’t work and why your success and your boss’s success are tied together. This episode is filled with book suggestions to add to your reading list and handy strategies for managing up effectively     Andy Kaufman is a recognized expert on leadership and project management, helping organizations around the world improve their ability to lead and deliver. Andy works with leaders at the United Nations, NASA, and other global clients to improve their ability to deliver on their initiatives. Before becoming an internationally sought-after speaker, Andy started as a software developer and was promoted into management for all the wrong reasons! He is the author of three books and host of the acclaimed People and Projects Podcast, which provides free PDUs through interviews and insights for his global listeners. Enjoy!       Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast! I welcome your feedback and insights!  I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online! Warmly, Laura Barnard     GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS