PMO Strategies

Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers!PMI Talent Triangle: Power SkillsSome of the most expensive words I hear inside an organization are, “We’re waiting for more clarity.” Sometimes that is exactly the right call. The organization may be missing information it truly needs to act responsibly. But sometimes “we need more information” is a hiding place. The team already has a recommendation, but nobody wants to own it. Every decision moves up the chain while strategy waits. In this episode, I’m showing you how to separate a real information gap from false uncertainty and use one question to surface the thinking already in the room: “If you did know, what would you do?” You will hear how this changes the PMO’s role, what executives need instead of another unresolved escalation, and how to create movement without confusing responsible action with reckless speed. 🔹 How to recognize when “we need more clarity” is masking decision avoidance 🔹 Why a recommendation builds more executive trust than an unresolved escalation 🔹 How to distinguish a reversible learning step from a decision that requires stronger evidence 🔹 The three questions that turn uncertainty into a responsible next move 🔹 Why creating clarity is strategic decision support, not project administration Press play to learn how to help your team move forward without pretending the path is perfectly clear. P.S. Join me live for a FREE live workshop, Six Moves to Build a High-IMPACT PMO, on Thursday, September 10, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Bring one real strategy delivery challenge, and you'll leave knowing where to focus first and what to do next. Register now to claim your free seat and join us live. 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 BarnardGET 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 SkillsThis 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 LinkedInDawn Mahan on LinkedInExplore Projectland Read the free Moneyball sample chapterExplore Projectland Goes to the MoviesExplore Meet the Players in ProjectlandBrowse the Projectland movie list on IMDbContinue with the Executive Perspective Continue the baseball connection and watch What Baseball Teaches Us About Project ManagementP.S. Join me live for a FREE live workshop, Six Moves to Build a High-IMPACT PMO, on Thursday, September 10, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Bring one real strategy delivery challenge, and you'll leave knowing where to focus first and what to do next. Register now to claim your free seat and join us live.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 BarnardGET 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 WorkingProject 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 nowPress 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 LinkedInP.S. Join me live for a FREE live workshop, Six Moves to Build a High-IMPACT PMO, on Thursday, September 10, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Bring one real strategy delivery challenge, and you'll leave knowing where to focus first and what to do next. Register now to claim your free seat and join us live.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 BarnardGET 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 WorkingChallenge 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. If leadership keeps questioning the value of your PMO, the problem is probably not your team. It may be your starting point. Join me on Tuesday, June 2 at 12:00 PM EDT | 5:00 PM BST for a free House of PMO webinar on how PMOs can become seen, trusted, and valued for the IMPACT they create. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions if you’ve been curious about IMPACT Engine Fundamentals, IMPACT Engine Practitioner, or the full IMPACT Engine System. Register for the free webinar here.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 BarnardGET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW EPISODES | TELL US WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN | PDU REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS