PMO Strategies

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

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Business Acumen (Strategic and Business Management) Hey, IMPACT Driver! Do you ever get a random request from your boss or business leaders and get frustrated that they are adding more and more to your already full plate? What you may not realize is that you have a golden opportunity to turn these out-of-the-blue requests into something meaningful and measurable that positions you more formally as the strategic business partner in the eyes of your business leaders. This is something that comes up for so many PMO leaders as they are building and elevating their PMOs and in this episode, you’ll learn how to think differently about these requests and use them to further secure your seat at the table. 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! I am betting you’re in a position where you must manage multiple projects…at one time. Whether you’re building out PMO services and capabilities or being asked to “just” manage a few projects while setting up a PMO, you need to be as effective and efficient as possible. If that’s the case, how do we maximize our IMPACT when there are so many things we’re supposed to be doing at once? How do we support our project managers also managing multiple projects and ensure that everyone avoids burnout? In this episode, we have Elizabeth Harrin, author of Managing Multiple Projects, with us to talk about ways to best support the project managers in your organization that are managing multiple projects AND ways you can also more effectively manage your own project workload.   Elizabeth Harrin is a project management expert and founder of RebelsGuideToPM.com. An author of seven project management books, mentor and experienced practitioner, Elizabeth prides herself on her straight-talking, real-world advice for project managers. She uses her twenty years’ experience doing the job to help people deliver better quality results whilst ditching the burnout. 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! This week, we’re doing part two of our fun discussion called IMPACT After Hours with our usual gang of thought leaders at the PMO IMPACT Summit and the audience just loved it. So, in case you missed it, or just wanted to hear it again, I’ve broken it up into two digestible episodes. This week’s episode is the second half of that fun and IMPACT-filled session to help you think about ways that you can accelerate your PMO IMPACT and show more PMO value fast. Special thanks to my IAH crew, Amanda Oakenfull, Donna Fitzgerald, Mike Hannan, and Stuart Easton for joining me. It was fun to get the gang back together! 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