PMO Strategies

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (Leadership) Wow. What a year’ it’s been. I am certain that no matter what your plans were in January of this year, they were disrupted in some pretty big ways with the events that have taken place this year. A lot of us have been stressed beyond our normal levels of stress we face when bringing change to organizations. AND I just want to say you’ve got this AND you’re not alone. This year has been a struggle for a lot of folks. So, this week, I just want to tell you to give yourself a break. In the US it’s Thanksgiving week which is a time when many of us get together with family and friends and show our appreciation for each other. This year is probably not quite the same as usual for you and your family and that can add even more stress to an already stressful year. But you’ve worked hard this year. You’ve had to be the chaos manager for even more chaos than usual and people have been looking to you for the answers and often, you didn’t have all the answers. You did a great job. You did better than could be expected. You hold yourself to a high standard, I mean you are an impact driver after all, and its’ hard to feel like you could have done more. So a break…give yourself a break. That’s what you need. Let it go. Know you did your very best and say thank you to YOU for getting you through this year as best as you could. I’m proud of you. You should be proud of yourself too. And know that your team appreciates you too. They probably don’t say it very often, but someone has to hold down the fort and keep everyone sane, and that was probably you. This is also a great time to show them a little love. They are all dealing with the same stressors that you are and maybe we don’t say how much we appreciate them often enough. Give them a break. They could use a little support and breathing room. They did their best too. With that said, maybe the best thing you can do for yourself and your team right now is to let off the gas a little and let the weight of this year sink in for just a minute so you can then let it go. This will better prepare you for the new year and the certain chaos that is to come…that’s’ what we do. That’s our superpower. And even superheroes need a break occasionally. So give yourself a break. Give your team a break, and definitely give your boss a break. You’re all doing your best in a chaotic and event-filled year and we need you at your best, well-rested, clear-headed, and ready to drive more impact next year. You are what makes the world go round. From my family to yours. Thank you for being an IMPACT driver. Thank you for all that you do and know that I’ve got your back every step of the way. 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) In this episode, you will learn that for any PMO to gain prominence and become a true partner to the business, it must focus on the most impactful discipline: resource management. Many PMOs fail to provide lasting value and become antithetical to strategy execution.   For a PMO looking to drive lasting strategic impact, resource management represents the surest path. I'm joined by Sean Pales who is the founder and ProSymmetry and Tempus Resource.  Recognized by Gartner Research and deployed globally and across the Global Fortune 1,000. PMOs are under constant pressure to deliver and you will learn why investing more aggressively in resource management will be beneficial.  If your organization is looking to address resource management, you'll learn where to start.  Additionally, if a PMO already has a PPM system in place, you will learn how to identify the resource management deficiencies.      Resource Forecasting. Capacity Planning.  Purpose Built.    “ProSymmetry provides a resource management solution accessible to the masses.” -Gartner, “Cool Vendors in Project Portfolio Management” LEARN MORE       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) In this episode, you will learn how PMOs play a vital role in tying strategy to business value realization. As we transition to the “new normal” of a pandemic, companies are shifting focus from cost optimization to value optimization. I'm joined by Rani Pangam who is Head of PMO, Enterprise Agile Transformation and Organizational Change CoE at ServiceNow, where she has gained extensive experience leading strategic initiatives like Managed Services, Transformation CoE, ”Right Shoring”.  Digitization is core for survival and continuous change is a norm. With these conditions, PMOs need to understand the business strategy and supporting roadmap of key projects, products, or services that are critical to delivering business outcomes.  Delivering a strategic roadmap at scale, with shortened time to market while enabling organizational change adaptability, is key to realizing the project benefits. Be ready to roll when it's time to return Reopen confidently with the Safe Workplace suite - everything but the water cooler talk.  LEARN MORE     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! Before the chaos of 2020, there were changes in the air with our roles in the Project Management industry. Business leaders were beginning to expect more out of their project teams and those that were the most successful in the eyes of their business leaders had a seat at the table in driving not just outputs on projects, but the outcomes needed for the organization to achieve its strategic objectives. This trend continued into 2020, amidst the chaos of COVID-19, civil unrest, political unrest, and more that impacted how businesses delivered for their customers.  Many PMO and project leaders found themselves stepping up into business leadership roles to help their executives make quick decisions with little information in order to pivot quickly. As we approach are now in the last couple of months of 2020, many in our industry are wondering what's next and how they can continue to evolve to earn and keep their seat at the table in their organizations.  Our role is changing, as Sunil Prashara - CEO for PMI and I discuss in episode 068, and to avoid being left behind, it's incumbent upon all of us to embrace the increasing demands being placed upon us and learn how to up-level our own skills to lead our organizations into the future.  In this episode, I'm speaking with the fabulous Elise Stevens, about her new book, Unlocking the Opportunity, and the top skills for PMO and project leaders now and into the future.  I'd love for you to join me for Elise's book launch party and Q&A panel discussion on November 11, 2020 at 4:00 PM Eastern / November 12, 2020 at 7:00 AM Brisbane time. I will be joined by Elise Stevens, the host, Candida Tocci, and Dr. Wilma Slenders.  Power the Modern, Agile Enterprise  Wrike is a collaborative work management platform that enables teams to be insanely productive by transforming the way they plan, manage, and complete work. More than 20,000 companies worldwide rely on Wrike to manage complex projects and ensure deadlines are met. By bringing everyone into a single digital workspace, no matter where individual contributors are located, teams can achieve aggressive growth goals, while improving efficiency and maintaining quality. LEARN MORE   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 episode is dedicated to the many people that have reached out to me recently saying that they've just been hired to new PMO roles and believe the guidance I shared with them helped give them an edge over the competition. It warms my heart and inspired me to share some insights and ideas with you to consider if you're looking for a new role in PMO or PPM or if you're just getting started in that new role and want to know what to do first.  Following these steps right when you start will ensure you don't hit the many mistakes that PMO leaders make that we covered in last week's episode here.  In this episode, you'll learn: what resources will help you ace that interview how to set yourself apart from the usual candidates what to do during your first weeks and months what NOT to worry about right away how to put your best foot forward and get off to a strong start I can't wait to hear what you think of this episode and if you want to dive deeper into my step-by-step program to help you build that PMO right from the start, you can join this free masterclass on my 6-Step Process to Build a High-IMPACT PMO by clicking here or if you're ready to dive deep with hands-on support and guidance from me, check out my IMPACT Engine PMO training and implementation program here.    Unleash the full power of your PMO to lead your organization into the future (and finally earn your seat at the table). Whether you're building a PMO for the first time, trying to get your PMO back on track, or just want to ensure that your PMO is as high-IMPACT as possible, this training will get right to the heart of what really makes a difference in the eyes of your business leaders, where to focus YOUR energy for the best results, and how to accelerate your PMO performance. LEARN MORE 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 times when my new students come to me they are in desperate need of some help rescuing their PMO quickly so that they don't end up on the chopping block come budget time.  It can be a very stressful place to be AND you may not even know how close you are to being reassigned, replaced, or having the PMO disbanded completely. Now, I do not say that to scare you, but I've seen it too many times...PMO leaders get blindsided because they miss some of the warning signs that their PMO needs to shift directions quickly.  In episode 069, I talk about top mistakes I see PMO leaders making, and in this episode, I'm sharing with you 5 fast fixes you can do to get your PMO back on track, build credibility quickly, and accelerate PMO performance in the eyes of your stakeholders.  In this episode, you'll learn: obstacles to PMO success 5 fast and effective fixes to get your PMO back on track the step many PMO leaders skip and how that hurts them what to do if you have a small team or are a PMO of one how to align your PMO value with what matters most and so much more! I can't wait to hear what you think of this episode and if you want to dive deeper into the steps to take to implement these fast fixes, check out my free masterclass on How to Rescue Your PMO Fast.   How to Rescue Your PMO Fast Register for our free masterclass here to learn how to implement my fast fixes today! REGISTER NOW 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) I built my first PMO in the 90s (yes, in the last century!) and the truth is that I had no idea what I was doing! BUT, I had a Get. It. Done. attitude and a desire to learn and boy did I learn! A lot. I made a lot of mistakes and I learned a thing or two over the following two decades of putting PMOs and PM best practices in place.  Now that I teach and coach others the art of successful project management and PMO implementation, I am seeing some of the same mistakes I used to make when I was first starting out. I see PMOs that had a real chance of success getting bogged down in the not so important, while opportunity passes them by (as does their next promotion). While there are many things we can do wrong, there are MANY MORE things we CAN do right. Here are the top ten mistakes I wish I had known to avoid when I was in your shoes (and most importantly, what to do about it). I hope this saves you from learning the hard way, as I often did. Suffering from “Me Too” Syndrome Your execs go off to a conference or read an article and next thing you know, “we have to do that because everyone else is.” Sound familiar? Yeah, well, just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean it is going to make the most sense for you. You better be crystal clear on exactly what business problem you are trying to solve if you are going to make the time, money, and energy investment worth it. For more on this topic, check out Why do PMOs exist? Getting Caught Up in PMO Types or Maturity Sadly, many PMO leaders start building a PMO and putting templates and processes in place before they figure out what services will actually get the biggest bang for the buck in the organization. This is even more likely if this isn't your first PMO. You have some experience, you know what worked before, and you want to leverage that expertise to guide your organization through this PMO journey. Don't do it! You must figure out what your customers need help with first. You must identify the pain points that you and your PMO can solve. Then DO THAT first. Start with asking the right questions. Are you going to provide project management support? Will you provide governance and portfolio oversight?  Do they need coaching of PMs that aren’t reporting to the PMO? Think about who you want to be when you grow up…do you want to be the policing organization that everyone fears, or that my friend Lee Lambert calls the PMO Gestapo, or do you want to be the support organization that everyone turns to when they need to Get. It. Done? There's also a problem with maturity models. Every PMO is different and climbing an artificial scale of predetermined PMO value that doesn't align with your stakeholders' needs is a waste of time. Every PMO is unique and more is not better. Sometimes what you really need to do to provide value is do LESS and maturity models are all about more and more structure and process that may be unnecessary. The key is to solve the business problems and evolve your PMO services and capabilities as the needs of your organization evolve. For more on this topic, check out 4 Questions to Ask When Starting a PMO. Blaming the culture It’s very easy to say the reason your PMO isn’t working is because you don’t have the support or people don’t “get it” and it’s not your fault. It feels like you just keep pushing that boulder up the hill and it keeps rolling back down. I totally get it. I’ve lived that slow and agonizing nightmare of change resistance around every corner. What I learned, however, was to focus on what I could control and the rest would come along…eventually. Yes, you must practice patience, but even more importantly, we must learn how to do change WITH people instead of TO them. People are not resistant to change. They are resistant to change being DONE TO them. So,

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Business Acumen (Strategic and Business Management) Hi, IMPACT Drivers! If you’ve been in my community for a while, you’ve heard me talk about the shifting role of the PMO and the requirement to pivot to become a strategic business partner that your organization needs to thrive in the future. You’ve heard me say that the role of the PMO is to drive ever-higher return on investment for the organization’s strategy as quickly as possible and that this is the key to earning your seat at the table. And…that message is being shared by business leaders globally… For this week's episode, Sunil Prashara, CEO of the Project Management Institute (PMI), joined me to share his vision for what is to come for PMOs and project managers with a very clear call to action to PMO leaders to build what he refers to as the Gymnastic PMO to lead our organizations into the future. The opportunity for us is here for the taking and I think you’ll hear some things in this episode that will help you see how to make that pivot and become that IMPACT Driver your business leaders need.         In this episode you’ll learn: how business leaders see the PMO and project management how the role of the PMO is evolving the key functions PMOs will need to perform to thrive the important role of automation in our ability to level up what you can do to earn your seat at the table I hope you listen to this episode again and again (and share it with your colleagues) whenever you need a little inspiration or reminder of just how important you are to the future of your organization.   Unleash the full power of your PMO to lead your organization into the future (and finally earn your seat at the table). Whether you're building a PMO for the first time, trying to get your PMO back on track, or just want to ensure that your PMO is as high-IMPACT as possible, this training will get right to the heart of what really makes a difference in the eyes of your business leaders, where to focus YOUR energy for the best results, and how to accelerate your PMO performance. LEARN MORE 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) Hi, IMPACT Drivers! This is a riveting episode with Scott Payne, President of PM Master Prep.  Scott and I dive deep into how the best organizations design their training programs for maximum impact.  We will explain how the best organizations abandon the traditional off-the-shelf training approach and follow a more agile, engaged approach.  What you learn here will help you create a more focused, impactful, and sustainable project management team.  This is a can’t miss episode! In this episode you’ll learn: Secrets that all great project management training programs share (and bad training programs are missing) The real purpose of your PM training program Critical mistakes you must avoid to keep your PM training program from becoming flat and uninspiring How to make your training program pay for itself! Step-by-step actions you will use to realize the untapped potential of your project managers   Meisterplan is a project portfolio management tool that lets companies create realistic and achievable portfolios. With Meisterplan, you can see project details, capacity, and financials all in one dashboard. Start making better project portfolios with a free 30-day trial.  LEARN MORE 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) Hi, IMPACT Drivers! I’ve had the privilege of getting to know Jennie Fowler over the last few years and I’ve been impressed by how she’s built and run a highly successful, highly IMPACT-ful Strategy Realization Office (SRO) for her company for over 7 years. The more I talk to her and hear her talk about their journey, the more I see the connections between what she’s been doing and the very things I learned as a PMO leader inside organizations for over 15 years. Jennie is sharing her journey of transitioning from a PMO to a Strategy Realization Office during the PMO IMPACT Summit and her session is one that you do not want to miss! In today’s episode, we are exploring what’s next for PMOs and how you can make some critical shifts that will be necessary for tomorrow’s PMOs to be a key player in how organizations deliver on their strategy. Check out this episode to learn: the unique characteristics of tomorrow’s PMOs reasons PMO failure rates are so high how to avoid being a PMO failure statistic if the SRO model is the right answer for your PMO the importance of uncovering your superpower   Make sure to catch Jennie at the PMO IMPACT Summit and say hi to her in the mobile app! Cora PPM contains a comprehensive suite of functionality that provides the strategic capabilities to optimize capacity, analyze scenarios, track benefits, inform all stakeholders, and integrate across the enterprise. Acting as the bedrock for delivering major transformation programs. LEARN MORE 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