PMO Strategies

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

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

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

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

Having more than one PMO is not the problem.

Disconnected PMOs are.

In larger organizations, it is completely normal to have an IT PMO, a business PMO, a transformation office, a product delivery function, and maybe even a strategy execution group all trying to help the organization get important work done.

That can be powerful.

But only if those teams are connected.

When they are not sharing information, coordinating resources, aligning priorities, or working from one enterprise view of strategy delivery, the organization starts paying the price.

Executives get different reports.
Teams compete for the same critical resources.
Priorities conflict.
Baton handoffs break down.
And strategy slows down.

In this episode, I’m talking about what really happens when your organization has multiple PMOs and how to move from fragmented delivery functions to one connected strategy delivery system.

You’ll learn:
• Why multiple PMOs are normal and when they become costly.
• How disconnected PMOs create different versions of the truth for executives.
• Why quiet competition between PMOs damages credibility and slows strategy delivery.
• How to treat information as infrastructure instead of power.
• Why resource conversations need to happen before conflicts land on exhausted team members.
• How better baton handoffs can keep strategy moving across delivery teams.
• Where an EPMO can help and why relationships still come before structure.

I also share a client example where one CEO was getting four different views of the organization’s delivery landscape, four different definitions of “on track,” and four different answers to one capacity question.

That is not a reporting problem.

That is a strategy delivery problem.

If your organization has multiple PMOs, transformation teams, product delivery functions, or strategy execution groups operating in parallel, this episode will help you see where the fragmentation is costing you and what to do about it.

Press play and learn how to stop competing for the same table and start building a stronger IMPACT Engine for the entire organization.

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

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers!
PMI Talent Triangle: Ways of Working

Organizations have more data than ever before.

More dashboards.
More reports.
More tools.
More conversations about AI.

And yet, many leaders still cannot get the trusted information they need to make fast, confident decisions.

In this episode, I am joined by Scott Ambler to discuss why organizations continue struggling with fragmented data, siloed systems, disconnected reporting, and decision-making delays.

Scott is a recognized thought leader, international keynote speaker, former Vice President at PMI, and co-author of 31 books, including his latest book, Not Just Data: How to Deliver Continuous Enterprise Data.

Together, we share why better decision-making does not come from creating more reports. It comes from building the systems that allow trusted enterprise data to flow continuously to the people who need it, when they need it.

If your organization is investing in dashboards, reporting tools, transformation, AI, or enterprise modernization, this conversation will help you see the data foundation underneath all of it.

What you’ll learn:
🔹 Why more reporting does not always lead to better decisions.
🔹 How siloed systems and disconnected data slow strategy execution.
🔹 Why executives may still lack decision-ready information with constant reports.
🔹 What continuous enterprise data pipelines are and why they matter.
🔹 Why AI cannot compensate for poor data quality.
🔹 How PMO and transformation leaders can help protect and prioritize the data work.
🔹 Why trusted data flow is becoming a strategy delivery capability, not just an IT concern.
Press play and learn why better decision-making does not start with more dashboards. It starts with trusted enterprise data that supports decisions, action, and measurable IMPACT.

Connect with Scott Ambler:
Follow Scott Ambler on LinkedIn
Visit ScottAmbler.com

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