PMO Strategies

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That tradeoff is outdated.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

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers!
PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills
If spreadsheets were the secret to PMO credibility, you’d already have a seat at the executive table.

Instead, many PMO leaders are buried in trackers, refining templates, and chasing status updates… still not being seen as strategic partners.

In this episode, I’m reflecting on why tools feel productive but often keep you stuck. I share how over-processing slows you down, how documentation gets mistaken for delivery, and what to focus on instead if you actually want traction and trust.

What You’ll Learn:
✅ Why tools feel safe but don’t build credibility
✅ How over-governance turns you into the bottleneck
✅ Why documentation is not the same as delivery
✅ What happens when you stay buried in templates
✅ How to pivot from tracking activity to driving real business value
Spreadsheets are useful. Templates are helpful. But they are not the secret to successful leadership.

👉 Press play and learn how to stop hiding in tools and start leading with strategy.

P.S. If you’re tired of polishing dashboards and ready to build a true strategic operating system, the IMPACT Engine System™ gives you the framework to shift from tracking work to driving measurable IMPACT. Learn more and register 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

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers!
PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills
If someone looked at your calendar for the last two weeks, would they see a business leader or a high-priced administrative assistant?
You tell everyone you’re strategic. You say you’re focused on value. But if your day is packed wall to wall with status updates, meeting invites, and data chasing, your calendar is telling a different story. It’s telling your organization that you are in the weeds, you’re overwhelmed, and you aren’t available for the strategic conversations that actually move the needle.

In this episode, we talk about the "Time Audit." I share a story about a colleague who mastered the "Power Hour" and why most PMO leaders are doing $15 an hour work while receiving a $50 an hour paycheck. It is time to stop proving you can do everything and start showing you know what to prioritize.

What You’ll Learn:
How to conduct a real time audit to identify your leadership leaks
The math behind why "comfort work" is threatening your strategic value perception
Why no one ever got promoted for being excellent at Excel
How to reclaim your "Power Hour" to focus on strategy before execution

▶ Press ️play to learn how to audit your time and shift your focus back to where it belongs: on strategy, alignment, and driving business IMPACT.

P.S. Looking for more guidance on how to build your strategic value as a PMO, transformation, or strategy delivery leader? The IMPACT Engine System helps leadership teams shift from reactive oversight to outcome ownership with the strategic alignment and clarity they need. 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