PMO Strategies

Laura Barnard
  • 4.9 (42)
  • Management
  • Updated Weekly

In this podcast, PMO leaders and those wanting to capitalize on the best of project management to deliver the organization’s strategy will uncover the hidden secrets of the best PMOs, learn the game-changing techniques that transform any PMO into a value-driven IMPACT Engine, and explore the best ways for the PMO to become an integral part of the fabric and future of an organization. After spending two and a half decades helping organizations deliver change, with 15 of those years in the shoes of PMO leader inside organizations, Laura strongly believes that there is more to making an IMPACT than templates, tools, and process. She’ll show you how to make the shifts necessary to become a business-focused PMO that will become an invaluable organizational asset. With her guests and insights, we explore the sticky situations and tough challenges PMO leaders face, from sorting through all of the “noise” about what the PMO “should” do to finding the best ways for your PMO to make an IMPACT. Listen in, and you can discover how to shift your focus from outputs to outcomes, fundamentally changing the game for your PMO and personal success.

  1. 1d ago

    374: Are We Repeating Agile Transformation Mistakes with AI? with Jim Highsmith

    Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Business Acumen Organizations are moving quickly to deploy AI. But are they building the adaptability, judgment, and decision systems required to use it well, or repeating the same mistakes that weakened so many Agile transformations? AI can analyze more data, generate more options, and move work faster. None of that guarantees the organization is asking the right question, assigning the decision to the right person, or protecting the human judgment it will need when the consequences rise. In this episode, I am joined by Jim Highsmith, Agile Manifesto co-author and a pioneering voice in adaptive leadership, to connect the original purpose of Agile with the decisions organizations are making about AI right now. Jim explains how Agile was designed to help organizations respond to uncertainty, why too many implementations became rigid and process-driven, and how the same pattern is beginning to appear in AI transformation. Together, we explore the shift from process-oriented management to judgment-oriented management and the role PMO and transformation leaders can play in designing stronger human-AI decision systems. This is not a conversation about choosing the newest AI tool. It is about deciding what should be automated, where people must remain accountable, how judgment develops, and whether the organization is becoming more capable or simply producing more output. When you press play, you will hear: 🔹 What Agile was created to solve and why its mindset became diluted as it spread. 🔹 Why doing Agile is not the same as building an adaptable organization. 🔹 How AI transformation can repeat the same process-over-mindset mistake at greater speed. 🔹 How to distinguish automation that removes activity from augmentation that strengthens human capability. 🔹 Why removing easy decisions can erode the experience people need for harder decisions later. 🔹 How PMO and transformation leaders can move forward before introducing more AI. 🔹 Why leaders need enough hands-on AI experience to guide implementation credibly. 🔹 What it means to move from process-oriented management toward judgment-oriented management. Press play to learn how your PMO or transformation office can help the organization move faster without surrendering the judgment, adaptability, and accountability required to create measurable business IMPACT. Connect with Jim Highsmith and Keep Exploring Connect with Jim Highsmith on LinkedIn Skills Build Teams. Judgment Builds Enterprises. Your AI Is Working. Is Your Team Getting Better? What the Dashboard Cannot See The Next Ethical Frontier: Why AI Can’t Replace Judgment Stop Picking Sides: Manage the Tension Between Adaptation and Optimization P.S. Build the Judgment Behind the Next Move AI can provide more analysis and more options. Your organization still needs leaders who can look beneath visible symptoms, understand what is really happening, and determine the highest-value next move. That is what you will practice inside IMPACT Engine Practitioner™. Across four live half-day sessions on October 7, 9, 14, and 16, you will learn the IMPACT Engine System™, apply it to one connected case, strengthen your judgment, and build greater clarity and confidence as a PMO leader. Enroll by August 31 for early tuition of $1,750 and four practical resources included with your enrollment. 🎯 Join the October IMPACT Engine Practitioner cohort by August 31. 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

  2. Aug 16

    373: Moneyball in Projectland with Grayson Barnard and Dawn Mahan

    Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills This episode is personal for me in a way most podcast conversations are not. For the first time, my son and co-author, Grayson Barnard, joins me on the PMO Strategies podcast. One of my closest friends, Dawn Mahan, is here too. The three of us talk about Projectland, baseball, the books we created together, and a leadership lesson PMO and transformation leaders cannot afford to miss. You can do everything that looks like good project management and still fail to help the team win. Your tool may be sophisticated. Your templates may be complete. Your governance process may be consistent. Your report may contain 85 metrics. None of that matters if leaders still cannot see the decision, the team is protecting activity that does not advance the outcome, or the project finishes without creating the business value it was funded to produce. Grayson recognized that lesson immediately in Moneyball. The goal was not to replace star players with people who looked like star players. The goal was to find what produced wins and organize the team around it. That is the question at the center of this episode: What is your team's version of getting on base? In this episode, you will learn: ✅ Why Grayson believed Moneyball was the obvious story for our chapter. ✅ How to distinguish work that looks professional from work that advances the business outcome. ✅ Why individual performance measures can pull people away from the team win. ✅ How Dawn's Projectland characters help teams understand roles, sponsors, stakeholders, and saboteurs. ✅ How both Projectland books make serious leadership lessons more engaging and easier to apply. ✅ Why fun is not the opposite of disciplined performance. ✅ How to prepare a team for the moment the plan stops matching reality. Connect with Grayson Barnard and Dawn Mahan Grayson Barnard on LinkedIn Dawn Mahan on LinkedIn Explore Projectland Read the free Moneyball sample chapter Explore Projectland Goes to the Movies Explore Meet the Players in Projectland Browse the Projectland movie list on IMDb Continue with the Executive Perspective Continue the baseball connection and watch What Baseball Teaches Us About Project Management P.S. Once you know what matters, the next challenge is helping leaders understand why they should act. Join me live for Make Your Case on Thursday, August 20, from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. Eastern. Bring one real strategy delivery challenge and turn it into a clear, leadership-ready Case for Change you can use in the room. Live only. No replays. Owners of The IMPACT Engine join free. Your book is your ticket. Register for Make Your Case. 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

  3. Aug 9

    372: How PMOs Can Cut Through AI Chaos with Paul McNamara

    Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Business Acumen A lot of PMOs are being asked to lead AI and agile transformation while still operating as reporting, governance, and oversight functions. That is where things start to break. Instead of simplifying work, AI can add more coordination, more noise, more duplicated effort, and more complexity. The tools may be faster. The organization may not be clearer. And that is exactly why PMO and transformation leaders need to pay attention. In this episode, I am joined by Paul McNamara, CEO and co-founder of Adaptovate, to talk about how PMOs can help organizations cut through AI chaos, redesign workflows, and move beyond pilots that never scale. Paul has led business transformation across global organizations and works with executive teams to build the operating models, transformation capabilities, and human performance systems required to make change stick. His background spans product management, engineering, marketing, sales, leadership roles at Boston Consulting Group, and experience as a SaaS CFO. That mix gives him a practical view of AI transformation: the business case, the operating model, the human side of change, and the delivery reality. Together, we explore why many AI conversations are still stuck at the surface level, why measuring AI success by logins or usage can create the wrong behaviors, and why organizations risk repeating the same mistakes they made during Agile transformation. What you’ll learn: Why AI adoption metrics can create the wrong behaviors.How duplicated agents can increase cost and confusion.What Agile transformation teaches us about AI pilots that do not scale.Why PMOs should focus on business enablement, not just process efficiency.How to start with one workflow people hate and build from there. Press play and learn how PMO and transformation leaders can bring sanity to AI chaos and help their organizations turn AI activity into measurable business IMPACT. Connect with Paul McNamara: Visit Adaptovate Take the AI Diagnostic Connect with Paul on LinkedIn P.S. The next IMPACT Application Lab is Make Your Case on August 20. Bring one real challenge you need leaders, sponsors, or your team to take seriously. Inside this free live workshop, I will help you turn that challenge into a clear, leadership-ready Case for Change. You will leave with a Case for Change you can use in the room. It is live only with no replays, and it is free for everyone who owns The IMPACT Engine. Your book is your ticket. Register for Make Your Case. Already own the book on Audible, Kindle, or in print? Use the same page to upload your proof and join me live on August 20. 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

  4. Jul 31

    371: 50 Years of Project Management: Lessons for What Comes Next with Lee Lambert

    Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Ways of Working Project management has more technology, training, certifications, and information than at any other point in the profession’s history. But a better tool cannot rescue a plan the team never built together. AI cannot manage a risk nobody is actively addressing. A credential cannot replace the judgment that comes from applying the work inside a real organization. That is the tension at the center of this special episode with my longtime friend and mentor Lee Lambert. Lee is a PMP, PMI Fellow, project management pioneer, and one of five people invited in 1981 to help create and implement the PMP certification program. We recorded this conversation as he approached his 80th birthday and reflected on more than 50 years of watching the profession change. Lee shares what project management looked like before the modern tools and standards, what technology has made possible, and what still gets missed when teams use automation without understanding planning, dependencies, risk, people, and outcomes. For PMO and transformation leaders, this is not a history lesson for nostalgia’s sake. It is a warning and an opportunity. The future will not reward the team with the most software. It will reward the leaders who know what must remain human, where discipline matters, and how to connect every delivery practice to the business outcome it is meant to create. When you press play, you will hear: 🔹 Why automation can make weak information move faster when the planning underneath it is incomplete 🔹 What team-built work breakdown structures, dependencies, and critical-path thinking still reveal that a screen can hide 🔹 Why a risk register is not the same thing as active risk management 🔹 How AI can strengthen project work when leaders know what to ask and how to quality-check the answer 🔹 Why credentials and training must be paired with applied practice, mentoring, and continuous learning 🔹 What Lee’s medical diagnostic project taught him about the difference between delivering an output and creating the intended outcome 🔹 The two things Lee wants the next generation of project and PMO leaders to prioritize now Press play above to hear the lessons Lee believes the profession must carry forward and decide which fundamentals your PMO needs to strengthen before the next wave of technology arrives. Connect with Lee Lambert Connect with Lee on LinkedIn P.S. Make Your Case The future of project management still depends on helping leaders understand why the right work matters. On August 20, the IMPACT Application Lab: Make Your Case will help you turn one real strategy delivery challenge into a clear, leadership-ready case for change. The workshop is live only and free for everyone who owns The IMPACT Engine. Your book is your ticket. Get the book and join Make Your Case. 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

  5. Jul 26

    370: How to Crush Your Authority Without Realizing It

    Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills One of the fastest ways to weaken your influence as a PMO, project, or transformation leader is also one of the most common. It sounds responsible. It sounds like alignment. It sounds like you are reinforcing executive support. But every time you lead with “the sponsor said,” “the boss wants,” or “executives told me to,” you may be training the organization to look past you for the real decision maker. That is how capable leaders accidentally become messengers. In this episode, I share how delivery leaders dilute their own authority without realizing it and what to say instead. Because sponsors matter. Executive support matters. But hiding behind borrowed authority is not leadership. It positions you as the person passing along instructions instead of the leader responsible for helping the organization deliver outcomes. What you’ll learn: 🔹 Why “the boss said so” quietly damages your credibility and authority 🔹 The difference between borrowed authority, positional authority, and business authority 🔹 How to use sponsor influence strategically without hiding behind it 🔹 What to say when you need resources, decisions, or support from another leader 🔹 How to connect requests to business outcomes instead of hierarchy 🔹 Why executives want leaders who can drive progress when they are not in the room Press play and learn how to stop sounding like the messenger and start communicating like the leader responsible for the outcome. P.S. Next up in The IMPACT Application Lab is Make Your Case, where I’ll help you turn one real strategy delivery challenge into a clear, leadership-ready case for change. If you already know something needs to change but need help showing leaders, sponsors, stakeholders, or your team why it matters now, this workshop is for you. It’s FREE for everyone who owns The IMPACT Engine. Your book is your ticket. 📚 Get the book here. 👥 Join IMPACT Insiders here. 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

  6. Jul 19

    369: AI Is Exposing How Work Really Gets Done with David Dean

    Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Business Acumen There is a lot of pressure to prove your organization is keeping up with AI. But the most important question is not whether AI is already inside your tools. It is whether your organization understands the work well enough to know what AI is about to amplify. AI is exposing the difference between the way work is documented and the way work actually gets done. The process map shows the official steps. The real work often moves through conversations, relationships, judgment, informal decisions, and workarounds that never make it into the workflow. I’m joined by David Dean, author of An Inbox Between Us and an enterprise AI strategist with two decades of experience in transformation. David calls AI a mirror because it can help leaders see the behavioral system operating beneath the formal one. That visibility can reveal where decisions stall, accountability drifts, people wait for permission, and teams quietly compensate for an operating model that is not helping the work move. This matters for PMO and transformation leaders because the wrong first move is often to automate the process everyone already knows is frustrating. As David explains, AI can scale useful behavior, but it can also industrialize dysfunction. The better move is to slow down long enough to understand the pattern, solve the human problem underneath it, and then decide where technology can create meaningful business IMPACT. What you will hear: 🔹 Why AI is revealing how work really gets done, not simply replacing tasks. 🔹 How the written contract and the unwritten contract shape organizational performance. 🔹 Why self-service AI and controlled AI require different expectations and guardrails. 🔹 What AI can reveal about slow decisions, unclear authority, and hidden workarounds. 🔹 How a simple spoken digital journal can be a starting point for organizational self-awareness. Press play to hear how PMO and transformation leaders can use AI as a mirror, protect human judgment, and improve the operating model before they accelerate the wrong work. Connect with David Dean Visit David’s website Connect with David on LinkedIn Explore An Inbox Between Us P.S. AI can expose the real problem. The next IMPACT Application Lab helps you turn that problem into a leadership-ready reason for action. Make Your Case is live on August 20 and free for everyone who owns The IMPACT Engine. Get your book and join Make Your Case here. 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

  7. Jul 12

    368: Is Scarcity Mindset Limiting You?

    Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills What if the biggest thing limiting your influence is not your methodology, your governance model, your tools, or even your executive support? What if it is the mindset you have been operating from without realizing it? In PMO, project, and transformation work, scarcity is everywhere: not enough time, not enough funding, not enough resources, not enough sponsor support, not enough executive attention. And when you live inside that “not enough” environment every day, it can start shaping how you lead. Scarcity mindset can cause leaders to protect territory, hold back information, compete for recognition, wait for permission, or delay investing in their own growth because they are too busy, too overwhelmed, or too focused on the cost. But influence does not grow through protection. It grows through value creation. In this episode, you’ll learn: • How scarcity mindset shows up in PMO and transformation leadership. • Why “not enough” thinking can quietly shape the way you lead. • How protecting territory, information, or credit can limit your future influence. • Why investing in your own growth is not optional if you want to lead at the next level. • What abundance mindset looks like for IMPACT Drivers. • Why you do not wait until you are ready — you get ready by taking action. This episode is for PMO, project, and transformation leaders who are tired of waiting for perfect conditions, permission, or certainty before stepping into the leader they know they are capable of becoming. Press play and start shifting from “not enough” to “how might we make this work?” P.S. AI can expose the real problem. The next IMPACT Application Lab helps you turn that problem into a leadership-ready reason for action. Make Your Case is live on August 20 and free for everyone who owns The IMPACT Engine. Get your book and join Make Your Case here. 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

  8. Jul 5

    367: What Executives Really Think About Your PMO with Rich Smith

    Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers! PMI Talent Triangle: Business Acumen Most PMOs are working hard. That is not the problem. The problem is that the work they are doing is not always connected clearly enough to the outcomes executives care about. And when your PMO cannot connect its work to revenue, cost savings, risk reduction, strategic growth, or measurable business IMPACT, it becomes much easier for leaders to see the PMO as overhead instead of a strategic growth partner. In this episode, I am joined by Rich Smith, a Chief Marketing Officer and growth strategist with over 25 years of experience leading digital transformation, revenue strategy, and cross-functional execution across B2B and B2C organizations. Rich has spent his career helping executives align leadership vision with measurable outcomes. He has been on both sides of the table: leading transformation efforts and serving as the executive customer of PMOs. His perspective is one you need to hear. What Rich shares will sound familiar to every IMPACT Driver listening. The same gaps that hold PMO leaders back are happening in marketing, in sales, in operations, across every function. This is not a PMO problem. It is an organizational problem. And the good news is your PMO is positioned to fix it. What You Will Learn: 🔹 Why executives may struggle to connect PMO reports to business outcomes 🔹 How to tie project work to revenue, cost savings, strategic risk, and measurable IMPACT 🔹 Why framing projects as risk avoidance can get faster executive buy-in 🔹 How to build a broader base of executive support beyond one sponsor 🔹 Why asking questions is a power move, not a sign of weakness 🔹 How to frame data so executives can absorb it and act on it 🔹 What the PMO of the future looks like and the design shift that changes everything Press play and hear what your executives are thinking but not saying. This conversation will change how you show up in every executive room. Connect with Rich Smith: Visit His Website Follow Rick on LinkedIn P.S. AI can expose the real problem. The next IMPACT Application Lab helps you turn that problem into a leadership-ready reason for action. Make Your Case is live on August 20 and free for everyone who owns The IMPACT Engine. Get your book and join Make Your Case here. 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

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About

In this podcast, PMO leaders and those wanting to capitalize on the best of project management to deliver the organization’s strategy will uncover the hidden secrets of the best PMOs, learn the game-changing techniques that transform any PMO into a value-driven IMPACT Engine, and explore the best ways for the PMO to become an integral part of the fabric and future of an organization. After spending two and a half decades helping organizations deliver change, with 15 of those years in the shoes of PMO leader inside organizations, Laura strongly believes that there is more to making an IMPACT than templates, tools, and process. She’ll show you how to make the shifts necessary to become a business-focused PMO that will become an invaluable organizational asset. With her guests and insights, we explore the sticky situations and tough challenges PMO leaders face, from sorting through all of the “noise” about what the PMO “should” do to finding the best ways for your PMO to make an IMPACT. Listen in, and you can discover how to shift your focus from outputs to outcomes, fundamentally changing the game for your PMO and personal success.

Information

  • Creator
    Laura Barnard
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    376
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © PMO Strategies, LLC. | All Rights Reserved
  • Show Website
    PMO Strategies

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