PMO Strategies

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers!
PMI Talent Triangle: Ways of Working
Meetings aren’t the enemy. Dependency is.
In this episode, I address a problem many PMO and transformation leaders quietly create: operating models where nothing moves unless everyone gathers in a room. Meetings are part of leadership. Alignment, tradeoffs, escalation, and decisions often require conversation.
But when calendars become the operating model, execution suffers.
If your team spends all day in meetings and all night doing the real work, that’s not a productivity issue. It’s a system design issue.
Key Takeaways:
Why meeting saturation signals weak governance design.
How undefined decision rights create calendar dependency.
The difference between decision-driven meetings and status theater.
Why execution shifts to nights and weekends in over-scheduled cultures.
How to redesign your environment so meetings produce leverage

A portfolio review that makes no prioritization decisions isn’t governance. It’s performance.
👉 Press play to hear your next move. When meeting them changes nothing.
P.S. If your PMO is struggling to show strategic value, positioning may be the problem. Watch the free Rescue Your PMO webinar to diagnose what’s off track. Get the exact steps to turn things around fast. Learn more and 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: Ways of Working

Most PMOs acknowledge risk management. Very few actually practice it. There is a difference between logging risks and managing them, and that gap is quietly costing organizations the projects they cannot afford to lose.

In this episode of the PMO Strategies podcast, I am joined by Russ Parker, PMP®, PMI-RMP®, PMI-ACP®, owner of 44 Risk PM and a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer. Russ draws direct parallels between military planning discipline and how project organizations should embed real risk expertise to stop operating in perpetual crisis mode and start delivering the outcomes they were hired to produce.

Key Takeaways:
Why risk registers get created once and never revisited, and the pattern behind it
The three root causes that turn risk management into an organizational formality
How project managers accidentally become fire starters instead of fire preventers
What a Risk Management Professional actually does inside a PMO
How AI accelerates risk identification, historical analysis, and risk workshop preparation
One of the most underused tools in project management
Why positive risks are being ignored and what that costs your project delivery
Practical steps to build risk management discipline right now

Press play to discover how adding disciplined, specialized risk management to your PMO structure could be the most strategic decision you make for your project delivery outcomes this year.

Connect with Russ Parker:
Follow Russ on LinkedIn
Learn more about 44 Risk PM
Subscribe to The Bearded Risk PM on YouTube

P.S. Is your PMO seen as overhead instead of strategic? Most PMOs don't fail because of people or tools. They fail because of positioning. Watch the free Rescue Your PMO webinar to assess what's going wrong and fix it fast. Learn more and 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: Power Skills
Failure hits differently when you lead transformation.
When governance fails to stick. When prioritization gets ignored.
When a roadmap stalls. It feels personal.

But what if it's not failure? What if it's feedback?

In this episode, I challenge the belief that setbacks are verdicts.
We reframe them as data that sharpens strategy and design.

What You'll Learn:
• Why transformation setbacks feel personal for PMO leaders
• The difference between failure thinking and feedback thinking
• How governance breakdowns expose executive misalignment
• The early career lesson that led to The IMPACT Engine
• What failing forward looks like in disciplined PMO leadership

🎧 Press play to shift from protecting credibility to strengthening your system.

P.S. Is your PMO seen as overhead instead of strategic? Most PMOs don't fail because of people or tools. They fail because of positioning. Watch the free Rescue Your PMO webinar to assess what's going wrong and fix it fast. Learn more and 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: Ways of Working
Challenge a common belief: moving faster means accepting more risk.

That tradeoff is outdated.

My guest this week is Egil Østhus, Co-founder and CEO of Unleash, a leading open-source feature management platform helping enterprises reduce innovation risk and connect software delivery directly to measurable business outcomes. Egil brings experience from both engineering and PMO leadership roles, giving him a rare perspective that bridges strategy, delivery, and real-world execution.

Together, we explore how PMO and transformation leaders can go fast and stay in control by shifting from celebrating releases to measuring real business outcomes. Traditional delivery metrics like on-time and on-budget are not enough. Senior leaders don’t care that software was deployed. They care whether it improved customer experience, reduced risk, or increased revenue.

What You’ll Learn:
Why shipping to production is not the same as delivering business value
How controlled feature releases create faster learning cycles
Why small experiments outperform large scope commitments
How to measure success through stakeholder-defined outcomes

If you are ready to accelerate strategy delivery without creating operational chaos, this episode will reshape how you think about speed, risk, and IMPACT.
👉 Press play and start iterating your way to measurable business value.

Connect with Egil:
Follow him on LinkedIn
Learn more about Unleash

P.S. It’s time to look at the system behind your strategy execution. The IMPACT Engine System™ gives you the structured framework to align initiatives to real business outcomes and drive measurable IMPACT across your organization. Learn more and 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
Industry benchmarking has become one of the most sophisticated ways leaders justify decisions they already want to make.

“Top-performing organizations are doing this.”
“Best-in-class companies operate at this maturity level.”

Suddenly the direction feels obvious. Except it isn’t.

In this episode, I examine how benchmarking quietly derails performance when context is mistaken for strategy. Maturity chasing feels disciplined. Governance expansion feels responsible. But when structure outpaces capability, execution slows instead of accelerates.

You’ll hear why benchmarking is politically powerful, how maturity models create false signals of advancement, and where complexity without capability creates fragility inside your governance systems.

What You’ll Learn
1️⃣Why benchmarking reduces accountability instead of strengthening it
2️⃣How maturity scores improve while performance stays flat
3️⃣The structural law that complexity must match capability
4️⃣The disciplined test leaders should apply before adopting any benchmark
▶️Press play to learn how to design governance systems for measurable IMPACT instead of optics.

P.S. Stop doing everything yourself and start driving transformation. The IMPACT Engine System™ is our self-paced, implementation framework designed for strategy delivery leaders. Show up with the clarity and confidence your organization needs. Learn more and get started today!
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