PMO Strategies

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (Leadership) Hey there, IMPACT Driver! Are you curious about how your PMO can generate more strategic value for the organization? In this episode, I’m talking to Wolfram Mueller, a returning speaker at the PMO IMPACT Summit, about why the PMO is the best and only part of the organization that can help business leaders make the best decisions about the right projects to be working on and ensure they are doing them in the right way to achieve the highest return for the business investment. Wolfram is also giving you a sneak peek into what he’s covering at this year’s PMO IMPACT Summit This Episode is Sponsored by: The PMO IMPACT Summit is BACK and better than ever! The PMO IMPACT Summit is our FREE and VIRTUAL event to support PMO and Project Leaders make an even bigger IMPACT in their organizations, teams, and projects while building the critical skills necessary to THRIVE now and in the future. 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! According to Gartner’s recent study on strategic workforce planning, the workforce is struggling to meet today’s demands and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find external resources to backfill because of the competitive nature of organizations allowing people to work anywhere and in whatever way they choose. This creates a challenge for PMO and project portfolio managers trying to reach an optimal capacity balance across the portfolio. In this session, Greg Bailey joins us to discuss how to enable our workforce to become more invested, avoid burnout, and deliver under a continually changing dynamic environment. Resource Forecasting. Capacity Planning. Purpose Built. “ProSymmetry provides a resource management solution accessible to the masses.” -Gartner, “Cool Vendors in Project Portfolio Management” 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! In this episode, we’ll explore why most PMOs are not designed to maximize IMPACT and how that affects the organizations they support. We’ll look at the most important change you can make to vastly improve your portfolio’s performance. My dear friend, Mike Hannan, joins me to discuss how today’s multi-tasking culture is playing a role in slowing down our portfolio throughput, how to use lessons learned from some of the worst traffic situations in the world to boost portfolio performance, and what you can do to experience the dramatic improvements available to you with some simple tweaks. Resource Forecasting. Capacity Planning. Purpose Built. “ProSymmetry provides a resource management solution accessible to the masses.” -Gartner, “Cool Vendors in Project Portfolio Management” 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! Seizing moments of possibility—no matter how small—is the heart of building support for our ideas, big projects, and organizational changes. (This will be the focus of Rick's session during the PMO IMPACT Summit) There are often hundreds of these moments of possibility during the life of a big project. Many of the moments are small and easy to miss, some are big, but all can help create and sustain energy if we know how to tap into them. Powerful ProductsPassionate PeopleProfitable Portfolios As a leader in Agile Portfolio Management, KeyedIn offers SaaS solutions that support the evolving needs of PMOs, ePMOs and SROs, enabling business transformation, strategy realization and organizational change. 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! In the future of how project management professionals will work, live, play, and give, continued disruption will challenge many of your assumptions. The biggest one is how you’ll remain relevant. In this episode, senior leadership advisor, executive coach, and educator David Nour will share why project management professionals must embrace three critical ideas to accelerate their relevance: 1) Linear learning/growth will no longer suffice; you must embrace a non-linear path and reinvent yourself 2) A few strategic relationships, you choose to invest in, will dramatically accelerate your growth journey 3) Our organizational structures must evolve to deliver real and lasting innovation Join us on this podcast for an overview of Nour’s new book, Curve Benders, at the intersection of the future of work, strategic relationships, and personal reinvention. David is conducting a fabulous workshop at this year’s PMO IMPACT Summit. Be sure to register now before our seats for his workshop are sold out! All proceeds for the PMO IMPACT Summit live workshops will be donated to Project Management for Change, a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide the project management discipline to nonprofits to accelerate the realization of positive social outcomes. Resource Forecasting. Capacity Planning. Purpose Built. “ProSymmetry provides a resource management solution accessible to the masses.” -Gartner, “Cool Vendors in Project Portfolio Management” 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! In this episode, we’re looking at how you can get better at getting better by becoming a learning organization. There’s a shift happening in how organizations build capability and adapt to shifting demands which will have a huge influence on the PMO and project space (yes, even if you’re doing an Agile transformation program). Are you sure you’re keeping pace with the changes necessary to help your organization thrive? Today, Scott Ambler and I will talk about how transitioning to a learning organization will save your PMO, your agile transformations, and even help you boost your career. Check it out now because the future of your organization depends upon it! Powerful ProductsPassionate PeopleProfitable Portfolios As a leader in Agile Portfolio Management, KeyedIn offers SaaS solutions that support the evolving needs of PMOs, ePMOs and SROs, enabling business transformation, strategy realization and organizational change. 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! When you’ve proven to your organization that project management delivers value, helping everyone to accomplish more and stress less, invariably more people are interested in developing their project management skills too! This shift is a testament to your good work, but also can present a variety of problems and opportunities. If you’re running a PMO, do you have the time to teach everyone how to develop their skills from zero to proficient when they are not necessarily leading the most critical and visible projects? Likely you don’t have time for that, but the payoff can be enormous for both the organization and your reputation as the go-to internal project guru. In this episode, Dawn Mahan discusses the future of working more projectized and what this means for you, what "practical project management for everyone" looks like, and reflection/self-assessment questions and action taking ideas. 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: Power Skills (Leadership) In this episode, I’m talking with my pal Andy Jordan about Tomorrow’s PMO leader. You see, PMOs are evolving at a rapid rate, but are PMO leaders evolving at the same pace? If not, what changes do you need to make, what skills will allow you to succeed and how are you going to continue to evolve in the near future? Andy is also going to give us a sneak peek into his PMO IMPACT Summit session he’s doing this year at our big event and tell us WHY he agreed to join us again this year. His answer cracked me up! 😊 Make sure you check out this episode and register for free for this year’s PMO IMPACT Summit so you don’t miss out on the brilliant content we’re sharing this year. Powerful ProductsPassionate PeopleProfitable Portfolios As a leader in Agile Portfolio Management, KeyedIn offers SaaS solutions that support the evolving needs of PMOs, ePMOs and SROs, enabling business transformation, strategy realization and organizational change. 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! I have a big surprise for you.... The PMO IMPACT Summit is BACK and better than ever! The PMO IMPACT Summit is our FREE and VIRTUAL event to support PMO and Project Leaders make an even bigger IMPACT in their organizations, teams, and projects while building the critical skills necessary to THRIVE now and in the future. We’ve built a strong reputation as the longest-running and highest IMPACT virtual summit in the PMO community with top-notch content that you’d normally pay a bundle to access and we’re bringing all the general sessions to you for FREE because we want NO PMO OR PROJECT LEADER LEFT BEHIND. We want you to have everything you need to build your own professional skills with sessions covering strategy, leadership, organizational change, Agile, PPM, women in PM, managing in chaos, future readiness from top industry thought leaders, and those actually in the trenches building and running PMOs and projects. And this year, it gets even better… We will have LIVE Workshops and the popular IMPACT After Hours Q&A sessions daily! You’ll get bonus live Q&A sessions with speakers, live stream training events, and other goodies to help you right now and throughout the months leading up to the main event that begins on September 20 and runs for the week. So, download the IMPACT Driver Network app, JOIN the Community, and JOIN the PMO IMPACT Summit event inside the app! Then, introduce yourself on the Connect Wall, and let’s get the conversation going! 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! We've made it to our 100th episode! For this very special episode, we're taking a journey over the last 100 episodes and looking forward to what is next for you, my dear IMPACT Driver. If you've listened to these episodes, I talk about you as an IMPACT Driver A LOT and we need to talk about what that means to you and how that influences your success with your PMO and career. For many years, I've found myself saying, "Gosh, I really wish I had me when I was you." I want to share with you everything I've learned over so many years in this PMO and project delivery space and support you on every step of your journey. Join me for this episode where we talk about what it means to be an IMPACT Driver and how transitioning to this role is the fastest way for you to drive incredible value, help your organization achieve the highest possible return on investment for their strategy, and boost your career in the process. 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 been looking for creative ways to build the capabilities of your team members, project managers, or even your colleagues and peers? Are you wondering how to get more people on board with putting into action what you're learning? You've been on this journey to develop yourself...to become an IMPACT Driver...and to accelerate the IMPACT you can make in your organization, it's super important to bring others with you through the change process. In this week's episode, I'm going to guide you through an easy, fun, and creative way to learn together and most importantly, apply what you are learning to your organization. I'm going to show you how to create a podcast club for your team. It's kinda like a book club, but more fun and easier to get everyone on board because the episodes are only 20-60 minutes! Because the commitment is so much lighter than getting through a long book, you will get greater engagement and faster results! I'm even including a worksheet you can share with your team to ask and answer important questions about what you're learning, how it applies to your organization, and what exactly you'll do, as a team, to put your learning into action. DOWNLOAD THE DISCUSSION GUIDE WORKSHEET 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: Power Skills (Leadership) Hey there, IMPACT Drivers. In this week's episode, I'm diving into why less is really so much more when it comes to PMOs and if that’s the case, what do you do to provide value in your organization?We’ll look at some common mistakes PMO leaders run into when they try to deliver valuable services and capabilities in their organization, where it goes wrong, and what you need to do to make sure you don’t make any of these mistakes in the limited time you have to really make a difference. 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 Drivers. It is so easy to jump online and do a quick search when we need the answer to something. I do it all the time! However, with all the information out there about PMOs, how do you know if what you're looking for is going to take you down the right path or set you up for a lot of frustration and spinning in circles. This week, we're looking at the pros and cons of Googling your way to a PMO. We'll look at ways you can use it to help you and how to know if the information you're looking at is really going to help. 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 Drivers. Last week, we explored what you can do to be successful if you have a very small PMO (or a PMO of one person), which is how many start out.This week, I'm sharing with you what I believe to be the most important service you can deliver for your stakeholders and WHY you should do it in the early days of PMO services delivery.Listen to this episode to unlock the secrets to building this capability quickly and mistakes to avoid along 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: Power Skills (Leadership) Hey there, IMPACT Drivers. Today we’re talking about the best ways you can make an IMPACT with your PMO if you are a one person PMO. How do you successfully build and deliver PMO services and capabilities when there's only one of you and oh so much to do? Some of the students in my IMPACT Engine PMO Training and Implementation program join because they are starting a PMO. Some of them are starting their first PMO, some are starting their 10th, some have a team when they join, but many do not, but ALL of them benefit from following the tips I’m sharing with you in this episode. We’ll dive into how to determine what services you should build while getting buy-in right from the start, how to set appropriate expectations for what you can deliver, what to do when they want more that is reasonable for one person, and even what to do if you are asked to also manage projects while you’re building out services. Listen to this episode to discover how you can maximize the return for every bit of your time, energy, and focus on the PMO and position yourself for growth in the process. P.S. In next week’s episode, I’ll share with you my thoughts on what service you should likely start with to maximize your IMPACT with limited resources. 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! You know that feeling when you are called in to rescue a project and you get to be the hero? The adrenaline is pumping, the stress is on, and you gotta admit...this is fun...at least a little. :) You probably also realize that when you act as a firefighter, again and again, you are letting your project people off the hook of learning better behaviors that will ensure future project fires are prevented. Instead of being a firefighter or perhaps, dare I say, a fire starter, we must walk a fine line to ensure that we rescue the project without rescuing our people. Tune in to this episode to learn why rescuing our project teams can be a dangerous business and how to turn that project around while teaching the team a better way forward for next time. 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! This is the final episode of the three-part series on implementing project management practices in an organization. In Episode 091, we talked about how important timing is when implementing PM practices. In Episode 092, we covered who should own the PM and PMO processes. Once we get those critical components right, and if we're still having challenges with resistance to PM best practices, we can turn to these surefire ways to address and resolve resistance to implementing the PM practices. In this episode, we're looking at specific techniques you can use to address the various types of change resistance you might face when rolling out PM practices and what to do about it so that you don't lose your sanity and can keep everyone moving forward to achieve the IMPACT the organization's PMO and projects are designed to achieve. If you're looking for more on how to deal with difficult stakeholders, I've got your back! Just listen to Episode 088 next! 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! This is the second episode in a three-part series about implementing project management practices in an organization, and how important it is to get the when, how, and who just right. Last week, we talked about how important timing is when implementing PM practices in the organization. This week, we're going to talk about who should own the PM and PMO processes. Are you wondering if this is a trick? You might be thinking, "Well, it's the PMO, of course!" I think you might change your mind after listening to this episode. I'll share with you why it's so important that ownership of the PMO and PM processes do NOT fall on the PMO or project managers, where the ownership should be, and how to ensure what you implement has the right kind of engagement, support, and adoption in your organization. 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 heard the saying, "Timing is everything?" That statement applies to so many things and implementing PM process in your organization is no different. Last week, I shared a huge mistake PMO leaders make when starting a PMO and this follows right along with that theme. If you implement PM processes at the wrong time, you will run the risk of running your PMO right into the ground before you've ever had a chance to get really started. In this episode, I'm starting a multi-episode series all about implementing PM processes and practices in your organization, why timing is so important, and what to do when you are not getting adoption like you should. And first things first...how do you know when it's the right time to implement PM process, templates, and methodology, and what you should do before you introduce any process to the organization. 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) Do you know that you might be making one of the biggest mistakes that PMO leaders make when starting a PMO? This mistake can be so detrimental that it can erode any credibility you have, set all of your stakeholders up to go around the PMO, and destroy all hopes you have for building a PMO that you KNOW will provide incredible value to the organization. In this episode, I'm sharing a story of one client that was almost too late to save from making this mistake, what exactly they did, how we got them back on track, and what to do to avoid this mistake. And don't worry, if what you hear sounds a little too familiar, I'll explain what you can do to get back on track with your PMO. If you're really lucky and I've caught you before making this mistake, AWESOME! I'll give you the exact steps to take, and in what order, to get your PMO off to a high-IMPACT start. 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) What is the purpose of a PMO and do you need one for your organization? You may have heard that PMOs are a great way for you to deliver on your organization's strategy and are curious about what value a PMO would really bring to your organization. Or you might be on the other end of the spectrum and had a not-so-great experience with PMOs. I hear you and explain why this might be happening and what to do about it. In this episode, I walk you through some of the many benefits you can expect if you have a PMO implemented the right way, how to get started, resources to support your journey, and what to do if the PMO in your organization isn't delivering these benefits and creating a positive ROI for you. We're also covering when a PMO is not the right answer and how you can support your PMO team to get the results you need. This episode is sponsored by: 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) Today's topic...managing stakeholders! In my recent survey, many respondents listed managing stakeholders as one of the most challenging aspects of their day-to-day responsibilities. So how do you effectively engage your stakeholders, even the most difficult ones?You’ll learn some simple steps you can take immediately to manage your stakeholders more effectively, reduce the stakeholder-driven headaches on your project and PMO, and achieve greater IMPACT with the right stakeholder engagement strategy. Listen to this episode to learn: a more accurate way to define stakeholder how to identify the stakeholders you might not be thinking about the most critical thing you need to know to influence them most effectively simple categorization techniques that help you plan your engagement strategy how to assess their power and influence on your project or PMO different ways to engage them what to do about resistance the most important thing you can do when you interact with difficult stakeholders 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: Power Skills (Leadership) In this episode, I'm continuing my series of debunking some of the biggest myths in PMOs. We're talking about the PMO charter. Should you have a PMO charter or not? If not, how do you clarify the goals for your PMO to get that incredibly important stakeholder buy-in we all need to be successful? We'll cover... to charter or not to charter how to effectively communicate the goals, priorities, services, capabilities, and IMPACT your PMO will make what this documentation should look like to earn you immediate credibility how to get and keep stakeholder buy-in for your PMO exactly what to include to show you mean business Make sure to grab your notepad for this one, as I'm giving you a big list of items you must include. What you learn in this episode might surprise you A LOT. Workflows for the modern enterprise Digital workflows are the building blocks for the modern experiences employees want and customers expect. 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) In this episode, we're talking all about PMO Maturity Models. Should you focus on maturing your PMO according to a predefined maturity model or framework? Is there a maturity model framework out there that's best for you and for your PMO? Join me for this episode as I share an eye-opening perspective on the Maturity Model prescription and even debunk some myths that could be holding you back from making the IMPACT your PMO is meant to make. You'll learn how to ensure that you're focused exactly where you need to be to build the right services and capabilities for your PMO. 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: Power Skills (Leadership) There’s so much buzz out there about the type of PMO you should have and it can get super confusing. In this episode, I’m going to debunk the PMO Type myth, explain why typing your PMO is so dangerous, and what to do instead. 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: Power Skills (Leadership) Do you know the true cost leaders pay when they take communication for Granted? This is such an important topic and I'm pleased to have Skip Weisman on this episode to shed light on this topic. You'll learn how to determine the cost of a "soft" skill like communication in a work environment or company culture, what leaders can do to not take communication for granted along with what can happen if they don't take action. Communication is happening all the time and is talked about as being a problem. We'll discuss how Skip claims leaders take communication for granted. Workflows for the modern enterprise Digital workflows are the building blocks for the modern experiences employees want and customers expect. 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) I have to admit…when I was early in my career, I was pretty outcome-focused and sometimes didn’t take the time necessary to bring people with me through the change I was driving. Sure, I had plenty of friends and colleagues I enjoyed working with, however, if I was on a tough project or under tight deadlines, I definitely didn’t worry so much if the people were on board. This cost me a lot of time and frustration early on. Truth is, I didn’t appreciate how much building the know, like, and trust factor with your stakeholders will influence the outcome of your projects. As IMPACT Drivers, we can get a myopic focus on getting to the results and if we’re not careful, we can forget just how much harder things will be to actually achieve those outcomes we’re looking for if we don’t bring people with us through the process. Remember, people are not actually resistant to change, they are resistant to change being done TO them instead of being done WITH them. In this episode, my pal Annmarie Curley, and I are going to talk about our own struggles and battle scars earned when we didn’t focus on building strong relationships first to help us drive change and deliver projects and how you can improve your relationships to achieve much stronger outcomes. Take Annmarie's Relationships Accelerator Assessment Tool: https://newgrangeitconsulting.lpages.co/relationships-engagement-accelerator/ Join Annmarie's free leadership community with resources on managing and leading in the real world: www.solasleadership.com Enable change. Lead digital transformation. Drive innovation. Enterprise-centric project and portfolio management software 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) There’s an art to building a project management competency program inside your company. If you do it too soon, you could face resistance and may not have the right top down and bottom-up support. What you will hear in this podcast episode is not just how to do it well and what to do, but the art of perfecting the timing. It is probably not the first service you want to build for your PMO because you will likely need to build some trust and credibility with your leaders and other stakeholders before you take on the task of bringing PM capabilities to the broader organization. But how do you know when it’s the right time? In this episode, you’ll hear Allison Primack’s journey as a PMO leader faced with building a PMO from the ground up and the nuances that she discovered when determining the best time and way to setup a project management competency program. Enjoy! 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! What if I told you there was ONE critical habit that the most successful PMOs have that will guarantee PMO success now and into the future? Would you believe me? Would you say, "Yeah, but she doesn't know the way things work in my organization"? 2020 was a wild year and while many PMOs were struggling just to get noticed or to keep the chaos under control, other PMOs were thriving and had finally earned their seats at the table in leading not only through the chaos of 2020 but are leading the charge in bringing their organizations to a new more stable place as we head into a new year. Listen to this episode to hear that critical habit you must build with your PMO if you want to be sure that the PMO services you deliver are always on point. Register now for the PMO Health Assessment and Plan workshop today! I'd love to see you there! LEARN MOREThanks 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) Wow. We finally made it to 2021 and it's time to look forward to the future and the endless possibilities it holds for you and your career. In this episode, I'm sharing some tips to position yourself to take advantage of all of your strengths and opportunities that come your way. You want to be ready and go after what you want! I'm also giving you a breakdown of all of the great podcast content you can use to fill your training and development plan to boost your professional performance. Topics: Leadership Skills Career Development Organizational Change Management Building a PMO Pivoting Your PMO Project Portfolio Management Methods and Agile I would love to hear what episodes make it to your career development plan. If you need a little help accelerating your career, I'd love for you to join me for the self-paced Career Accelerator Workshop to have your best year yet! 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. LEARN MOREThanks 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 Drivers! Today, I’m talking with PMO Joe about the purpose-driven PMO. As you know, I believe very strongly that we must assess the organization for IMPACT opportunities before we build our PMO. It starts with understanding WHY you’re creating this PMO and creating that alignment right from the start with your business leaders so that you’re delivering on what really matters. Joe calls this creating purpose with your PMO. Join us for this podcast to learn how you can define the purpose of your PMO. In this episode you'll learn: What is the Purpose Driven PMO The steps within the Purpose Driven PMO Why PMO Joe created the Purpose Driven PMO? The story behind how Joe started THE PMO SQUAD Why they call Joe, "PMO Joe" Enable change. Lead digital transformation. Drive innovation. Enterprise-centric project and portfolio management software 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) Hey there, IMPACT Drivers! What a year it’s been, huh? This week, it’s time to do a little looking back… I am joined by William Volpe to talk about how applying a stronger project management process earlier in this COVID-19 global pandemic could have significantly influenced the outcomes we experienced this year. What’s interesting is that in many places around the world, people with project and program management experience were not put in charge of these response and recovery efforts, leaning more toward people that were respected as business leaders. How might this year have looked if project managers were at the helm? After all, we are the natural cat herders, the chaos managers, and the IMPACT Drivers. This is what we do best. Note that we recorded this episode earlier this year and we’re sharing it now as more of a retrospective on how things could have turned better with a stronger PM influence. Now, we’re looking at the distribution of vaccines around the world which is an enormous logistics challenge (aka perfect opportunity for project and program management). 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: Power Skills (Leadership) I’m super excited to bring back Andy Jordan to the podcast. Andy is President of Roffensian Consulting management consulting firm with a strong emphasis on organizational transformation, portfolio management, and PMOs. Andy and I have partnered on PMO workshops, speaking engagements, and he is a regular speaker for the PMO IMPACT Summit. I love the way he opens our eyes and minds to the ways we can drive ever-higher IMPACT in our organizations with the power of the PMO and PPM. In today’s episode, we’re exploring the future of Project Portfolio Management and what you need to be thinking about if you’re looking for ways to up-level your PMO IMPACT in your organization, how the events of 2020 create an opportunity for PMOs and PPM, and who should own this function in the future. In this episode, you’ll learn: If PPM was impacted by COVID-19 What the future looks like for PPM What to do if your organization hasn’t embraced PPM Who will own PPM in the future The skillset needed to run a PPM function See what happens when manual becomes magical Transform the way you work with connected digital workflows. 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) In this episode, we dive into why PMOs are in the perfect position to lead change within organizations. It is now the time for PMOs to become "Chief Transformation Officers" and support the digital transformation within their enterprise. Join us to discover why now is the time to evolve your PMO, starting with a 3-step process. I'm joined by Valerie Zeller who is Sciforma's CMO. Valerie Zeller is a growth strategist with more than 20 years of experience launching innovative software and middleware solutions in the U.S. and Europe. As a marketer, software enthusiast, and process optimizer, her goal is to develop solutions that increase organizations’ productivity. You will learn why PMO's should be the ones leading change, how they can practically be the agents of change for organizations and PMO can play a leading role in change by leveraging the data they own. Enable change. Lead digital transformation. Drive innovation. Enterprise-centric project and portfolio management software 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) 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

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (Leadership) Hi, IMPACT Drivers! Today I’m talking to Rick Morris about the portfolio management dream. You hold the keys to your organization's strategy delivery when you have a portfolio management practice in place. So, how do you get there in a way that makes it a dream come true instead of a nightmare? In this episode, you’ll learn: Why Rick calls it "a dream" and if it's actually doable the barriers to portfolio management you must conquer tips to expedite portfolio management and why it's necessary if PPM hurts or helps project management Make sure to catch Rick at the PMO IMPACT Summit and say hi to him in the mobile app! Transform Visibility and Alignment Strategy-Led PPM for Business Outcome Focused PMOs. Place the right bets, turn quickly, and deliver faster with this innovative approach to top-down portfolio and capacity planning with KeyedIn. Looking at adopting a more agile method due to the on-going crisis? Concepts like iterative development, continuous improvement, and prioritizing a dynamic backlog, when applied to portfolio management can deliver a host of compelling benefits that KeyedIn brings to life. 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! There’s no question that leadership today means facing a unique set of challenges. Leaders must find a way to empower and motivate dispersed employees and facilitate cross-functional collaboration, operating in an environment like never before. With remote work as the new norm for so many, effective leadership is critical. In this episode, I’m talking to Amir Younes, Vice President of Client Success at Wrike. During his time at Wrike, Amir has built and led an internationally recognized client success team and has helped take Wrike from a $35M company to $100+M. We’re talking about leadership in a time of crisis so you can learn how to unite, empower, and inspire teams from anywhere. In this episode, you’ll learn: 3 essential leadership qualities for managing during a crisis how to build high performing teams amidst the chaos how to effectively manage your time as a leader what processes you should automate to create efficiency a unique way to think about leadership vs management Learn more from Wrike: Wrike Virtual PMO Summit - Article 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) Hi, there IMPACT Drivers! Have you heard of Disciplined Agile? I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Scott Ambler, the Vice President, Chief Scientist of Disciplined Agile at the Project Management Institute (PMI) and he’s introduced me to Disciplined Agile and I LOVE IT! It’s the perfect approach to putting common sense into common practice. It’s not a framework or methodology, but more of a toolkit of guidance and resources to help you make good decisions to have a more Agile approach to implementing your PMO, products, and projects. Scott is diving deep on this topic at the PMO IMPACT Summit and has agreed to give us a brief overview of Disciplined Agile and how that mindset applies to the PMO for this week’s podcast. In this episode, you’ll learn: what Disciplined Agile is all about how the principles of Disciplined Agile create opportunities for PMOs why Disciplined Agile is so important to the future of project work how the Disciplined Agile mindset applies to the PMO Imagine it, achieve it, and make an impact with Clarizen’s enterprise collaborative work management solution. Clarizen offers the only adaptive solution on the market for enterprise collaborative work management. Their solution enables you to work in whatever manner you want – whether waterfall, agile, or a combination of the two. Companies find immense value in the visibility the solution brings across many workstreams at a company – regardless of where the work is being done. People quickly turn ideas into strategies, plans, and actions to adapt and respond faster to market changes. Project leaders can move faster with better data, eliminate work chaos with complete transparency, and work smarter with better results. 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) This week, I’m speaking with Philip Martin, CEO of Cora Systems. Philip has been working with organizations globally to implement portfolio solutions and how critical it is to get it right AND get it right. We’re going to walk through Philip’s 9 Rules for Successful Strategy Realization and if you like what you hear, make sure not to miss his session at the PMO IMPACT Summit where you can download his action-taking Pandemic Planning workbook that walks you through these 9 rules and so much more! In this episode, you’ll learn: what is meant by a Strategy Realization Office (SRO) what an SRO does that’s different from the typical PMO how running an SRO helps you earn a seat at the table factors to consider when building an SRO Learn more from Cora Systems: https://corasystems.com/blog/project-controls-issues-portfolio-planning/ 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

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Business Acumen (Strategic and Business Management) Today, I'm talking with PMO IMPACT Summit Speaker, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, about PMOs moving toward this concept of the Strategy Implementation Office. Recently, Gartner claimed that 80% of today’s Project Management tasks will be eliminated by 2030 as Artificial Intelligence takes over. Will 80% of today’s PMO tasks will most likely also disappear too? In this episode, you’ll learn: How the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted project management Why PMOs are struggling and what do we need to do differently What the Project Economy is all about Why what we’re doing now isn't working How PMOs and PMO leaders can adapt to these disruptions 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) In this episode, we’re talking with Sherry James about why a diverse and equitable PMO will be the PMO that thrives in the future. Today's environment is different for all of us. It is important to ensure that our teams are diverse in thought to best support our organizations. For many organizations, the Diversity and Inclusion training is a part of your onboarding process and that’s where the conversation ends. I think it’s critical that we look at how we as IMPACT Drivers are creating a more inclusive and diverse environment in our PMOs and project teams, not just in times of high racial tension or media focus, but ALL THE TIME, and to the great benefit of our organizations. We have a unique opportunity to lead (and be recognized for this leadership role) the charge in our organizations to help them become more diverse, inclusive and equitable and in this podcast episode we’re going to explore what you can do and how to get started. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why diversity and inclusion is critical in PMOs Why you WANT to be asked to drive this in your organization How to have that first difficult conversation How to educate ourselves and our teams How to make the habits that shift the culture Make sure to link to her page to dive deeper with Sherry and learn more about mental health, diversity, and inclusion you can learn more here: https://www.sherryjamespmp.com To join her weekly IGTV show "With Your Mind in Mind" and her weekly IG Lives on Wednesdays at 7pm CST "Uncomfortable Conversations" https://www.instagram.com/sherryjamespmp/ Sherry James is joining us as a speaker for this year’s PMO IMPACT Summit, so make sure to say hi to her in the mobile app and community! 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