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PMI Talent Triangle: Business Acumen (Strategic and Business Management)
Master these 3 techniques for a productive path forward with Agile and traditional PM.
Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers!
NOTE: For the very best experience, listen to this episode on your favorite podcast provider here.This episode is sponsored by:
Show Notes:
Hey there, IMPACT Driver! Before we dive in, I wanted to let you know that the IMPACT Inner Circle Membership has undergone a big upgrade to make your learning and development super easy! If you want to access our hundreds of training and development resources, plus templates, tools, and guidance to help you make a bigger IMPACT in your organization, you can click the button below to learn more now!
Okay. Let’s dive into today’s episode!
In this episode, we talk about the very real issues organizations and PMs and Agilists are facing as we figure out how to deliver on our organization’s strategy. We tackle the big “us and them” conversations that are happening in companies around the world and talked about ways to move past the methodology wars to solving the real business problems we are there to address. And yes…that’s the punchline…sometimes it’s easy to lose focus on the real reason we are all gainfully employed in our organizations. We are there at the behest of the business to serve the business needs and help the organization deliver on their strategy. That could play out in a lot of ways in each organization, but the goal is to spend our energy focusing on the outcomes we are striving to achieve in our organizations instead of getting caught up in outputs.
Check out this week’s podcast episode to learn:
- how to stop the methodology war discussion
- the keys to moving past the noise toward productivity
- what you SHOULD assume
- the critical focus area you must shift
- the power of flexibility in achieving your shared goals
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T
hanks 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
I am a big fan and a regular listener of the podcast, but I think this post oversimplifies the agile vs PM situation.
In simple cases when the discussion is about “what delivery approach shall be chosen for the given initiative”, the basic message of the podcast (try to merge the benefits / mindset of the two approach to deliver the required outcome) is absolutely valid.
However, in many industries (like banking, telecommunication etc.) agile transformation goes far beyond this, heavily heated by the top tier consultant firms. Many corporate top managers are now very much convinced that the cure for their organizational problems (slow delivery, lack of required business outcomes, ownership / accountability issues in the organization) is to make a full-scale, organizational level agile transformation. The impacts are heavy: the role of project managers become uncertain, just like the PMOs’.
I have a very clear opinion about this phenomenon, but I would be also happy to have a straightforward talk about this.
Hey, Laszlo! Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts!
You’re absolutely right about this being a much deeper topic with so many considerations (I’ve spent many years in Financial Services and other “hot” areas for the Agile movement) this particular podcast is intentionally just scratching the surface.
Don’t worry! This is NOT meant to be an all-inclusive list of things you can do. It’s just to get people to start thinking differently about how they engage, how the PMO could be a player in this Agile space.
We’ve got an episode coming up with my pal, Jesse Fewell, where we’re going to dive deeper on the role a PMO can play in Agile transformation and I’m also doing an upcoming episode to give people more ideas.
The goal? Start introducing the idea slowly and help people shift their thinking step-by-step. Since you listen to the podcast (THANK YOU), you I’m a huge believer in bringing people through the change process slowly and this concept of the PMO role in an Agile world, not to mention Agile transformation, is something many will need to shift toward one step at a time.
I thank you for your engagement and as the coming episodes (in the 040s) come out, I’d love to see if this helps move toward the goals for you.
Great, thank you! Looking forward to the promised new episodes!
They’re coming – starting with 039 this week and 040 next week with more to follow. And I’m off to get my Certified Agile Leadership certification this week and will share some learnings from that program on future episodes, as well. I’ve managed a ton of Agile projects through the PMOs I’ve set up and my IEPMO program is an agile approach to PMO set up, so I’m a fan of Agile. I’m looking forward to seeing how this program can help me coach business and PMO leaders drive Agile transformation in their organizations.