PMO Strategies

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers!
PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills

You can be surrounded by people all day and still feel like you are leading alone.

Your team needs confidence from you. Your executives expect a recommendation. Your peers may be part of the tension you are trying to work through. So you keep turning the problem over in your own head, reading more, working harder, and trying to find the answer before anyone realizes you are not sure what to do next.

That independence probably helped you become the leader who could walk into a mess and figure it out. But as your role grows, trying to solve everything alone can limit you to the questions, experiences, and patterns you already have.

In this episode, I’m showing you what the right room can do for your leadership and how to tell whether the rooms you are in are actually making you stronger.
🔹 Why validation without challenge can leave you just as stuck as when you walked in
🔹 How a better question can move you from process thinking to the real business problem
🔹 What to look for in peers, coaches, communities, and leadership rooms
🔹 Why getting into the room is only the beginning

Press play to find the rooms that expand your thinking and help you lead the work differently when you go back inside your organization.

P.S. If you know what needs to change but need executive funding, authority, resources, or support to build or strengthen your PMO, join the FREE virtual training, How to Build a Business Case for a Strategy-Driven PMO. I’ll show you how to connect your PMO to the business problems executives already care about and make your case in language they can understand.

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

AI activity is spreading across organizations faster than many leaders can see what it is costing, where it fits, or whether it is creating business value.

That is exactly why I believe this moment matters for PMO and transformation leaders.

In this episode, I’m joined by Cedric Fiederer to explore what happens when AI stops being a collection of experiments and starts becoming a real enterprise portfolio of investments, tradeoffs, risks, and strategic choices.

We get into the questions executives are increasingly going to ask, especially when AI funding starts competing with ERP upgrades, growth investments, capacity, and everything else already in the portfolio.

🔹 Why fragmented AI activity is becoming an enterprise decision problem
🔹 How the PMO can create visibility without building a giant layer of red tape
🔹 What leaders need to know about value, compliance, workforce risk, and tradeoffs
🔹 Where to start if nobody currently owns the enterprise picture

If your PMO has felt a little outside the AI conversation, this is the opportunity I do not want you to miss.

Press play to see how the PMO can help turn AI activity into strategic value.

Connect with Cedric Fiederer
Follow Cedric on LinkedIn
Learn More About Planview

P.S. Want to go deeper on this exact challenge? Join me and Rod Hughes, VP of Transformation at Planview, for From AI Activity to Enterprise IMPACT: The PMO’s New Role in AI Transformation on Thursday, October 29 at 10am CT / 4pm GMT. We’ll explore how PMOs can create visibility into AI investments, help leaders decide what to fund, stop, scale, or rethink, and connect those choices to measurable business outcomes.

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

How many times have you told yourself, “I’m not ready yet”?

Not ready to have the executive conversation. Not ready to apply for the role. Not ready to build the PMO differently. Not ready to get the training or support because you need to figure a few more things out first.

I understand that instinct because I lived it. I did not become a confident speaker and then step onto a stage. I said yes while I was scared, prepared responsibly, practiced with people who could help me, paid attention to what worked, and did it again.

That order matters for PMO and transformation leaders because the confidence, judgment, and skill you are waiting for are often built through the work itself. And if something is already not working, waiting can cost more than time.

How to tell the difference between responsible preparation and hiding
Why discomfort is not proof that you should wait
What real practice gives you that private preparation cannot
Why waiting too long can change how executives see your PMO

Press play to hear why the work is what makes you ready, and how to take the next responsible step before the organization makes the decision for you.

P.S. If the conversation you don’t feel ready for is the one where you need to make the case for your PMO, join my free training, How to Build a Business Case for a Strategy-Driven PMO.

You’ll learn how to connect your PMO to the business problems executives care about, define credible 90-day wins, and make a stronger ask for the support you need.

Join the free training.

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

AI is creating more ideas, more experiments, and more pressure to move than most PMO processes were designed to absorb.

That does not mean your PMO needs a bigger gate. It means the way you connect strategy, intake, prioritization, capacity, and learning has to change.

In this episode, I’m joined by Marc Chabot, Co-founder and CEO of ForceEquals, to explore what AI changes across the strategy lifecycle and why this may be one of the biggest opportunities PMO and transformation leaders have had to step into the Strategy Navigator role.

🔹 Why strategy can no longer be treated as a once-a-year input to project planning
🔹 How AI can help mature rough ideas without forcing stakeholders through a heavy intake process
🔹 What changes when leaders can see projects, priorities, capacity, and strategy in the same decision context
🔹 Why AI guardrails, exceptions, and human-in-the-loop decisions can become signals for the next strategy conversation

Press play to hear how the PMO can use AI to remove friction, strengthen decisions, and help the organization turn strategy into measurable business IMPACT.

Connect with Marc Chabot
Follow Marc on LinkedIn
Learn more about ForceEquals

P.S. If you know your PMO needs more funding, authority, or resources, but you are struggling to make the case in a way your executives will understand, join me for my free training, How to Build a Business Case for a Strategy-Driven PMO. I’ll show you how to connect the PMO to the business problems your executives already care about and make the case for the support you need.

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

A few years ago, I was listening to PMO leaders compare the size of the portfolios they managed. $50 million. $100 million. $500 million. Billions.

Those numbers sound impressive, but they only tell me what the organization invested. The business question is what it got back.

That is the shift I want you to make in this episode. Thinking like a business owner means looking beyond activity, utilization, schedule, scope, and budget to the measurable outcome the work was funded to create. It also means being willing to make harder portfolio choices when too much work is slowing everything down.

🔹 Why a project can be green and still fail the business
🔹 The three questions that reconnect work to measurable business value
🔹 Why 100% resource utilization can actually destroy throughput and flow
🔹 How to bring leaders stronger choices about capacity, timing, cost, and expected value

Press play to hear how business-owner thinking changes the way you lead projects, portfolios, and the PMO.

P.S. If you need executive funding, authority, or resources to build or strengthen your PMO, the conversation cannot stay focused on headcount, tools, governance, or explaining what the PMO does. In my free training, How to Build a Business Case for a Strategy-Driven PMO, I’ll show you how to connect the PMO to the business problems your executives already care about and make the case in a way they can understand and support. Register for the free training.

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