From Strategy to Impact with Laura Barnard

Speaker A: Welcome to youo Belong in the C Suite Podcast.

Speaker B: You are ambitious in life and in your career, but something is missing. You want to bring more of your passion to what you do because, let's be honest, you pour a ton into your work and it needs to mean more. I'm your host, Laura Igel. I'm a mom, wife, PhD coach, advocate, introvert, and indoor rowing fanatic. I'm passionate about living a life that's in line with my values. We'll give you the actionable tips and tools you need to lead with your values, make a difference, and have career success. The world needs more diversity and authenticity in the top jobs at organizations. Your leadership belongs there. You belong in the C Suite. My second book, Values First Teams how to Build a Culture that's Synchronized for Success launches on May 20. Miscommunication, misalignment, missed deadlines Every leader knows the frustration of a team that feels more like a tug of war than a unified force. And in today's whirlwind of deadlines and demands, it's easy to lose sight of the why behind the work, leaving your team feeling disconnected and disengaged. In Values First Teams, I'm sharing my proven framework for building an engaging team culture where shared values create stronger results and individual efforts harmonize to achieve a powerful collective momentum. It's more than just a leadership book. Values First Teams is a guide for building a workplace where everyone is aligned, engaged and rowing in the Same Direction. Values First Teams launches on May 20, 2025. Learn more at theketchgroup.com valuesfirstteams. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the you Belong in the C Suite podcast. I'm so glad that you're here with me today, and this conversation is one that I am so excited to share. Have you ever been at an organization where the strategy sounds amazing on paper, but somehow things just don't translate when it's time to get the work actually done? Or maybe you've experienced that overwhelming feeling when every project is marked as a high priority and it leaves you thinking that if everything is a priority, then nothing is really a priority. Well, today's guest knows exactly how that feels, and more importantly, she knows how to fix it. I'm thrilled to introduce you to Laura Bernard, the founder and CEO of PMO Strategies and the author of the game changing book the Impact Engine. For nearly three decades, Laura Laura has spearheaded efforts to unleash the power of effective project management to help organizations rapidly achieve higher returns on investment for their strategic goals. Her company's Groundbreaking Impact Engine system empowers organizations to drive transformational outcomes aligned to their vision with unprecedented speed and measurable business impact. Laura's nonprofit, Project Management for Change is on a mission to elevate the profile of the project management profession while changing the world for the better, one project at a time. In 2021, Laura was named World PMO Influencer of the Year by the PMO Global alliance, which is now part of the Project Management Institute. What I love about Laura's story is that she didn't take the traditional route. She started out in tech and found herself building a career in project management not because she planned it, but because she was naturally good at solving problems and helping people connect the dots between technical teams and business goals. In our conversation, we dive into what the Project Management Office, or the pmo, is really for. Why traditional metrics like on time and on budget are outdated, and how leaders can create operating models that align strategy with execution from day one. She also shares some deeply personal reflections about being a single mom while building her business and the values that drive her leadership style. Let's get started.

Speaker A: Well, I want to welcome you to the you belong in the C suite podcast, Laura. I'm m so excited to have another Laura on. So wonderful to meet you and I'm really excited to share this space with you today.

Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to talk to all of your community about, you know, some things I've learned along the way that hopefully I can share with them and give them some ahas to make a bigger difference in their organizations.

Speaker A: I love it. Uh, so before we get into your thought leadership and what you are expert on, I want to hear more just about you and your background. So I would love to hear about your career journey or any other things that you'd love to share with us. So tell me more about you.

Speaker C: Oh, thank you so much. Well, the career journey is an interesting one. I had no idea. I thought that my career was going to end with being in corporate executive, right. And just retire and do like the typical corporate thing. And apparently, you know, the universe had other plans for me. So I actually, um, a lot of people don't realize this about me, but I was a hardcore tech girl, um, quite by accident because when I was in high school, I never even had a computer. Like I'm, I'm about to date myself real quick. But, um, then I realized that I need to figure out what I want to do for a living, right? And so I was lost and I was Like, I don't know. I don't know what I'm good at. I don't want to want to do. But I was good at math, I was good at science. And we had a computer lab at the school. And so the one of the counselors took me in there and like, so these are computers, and so some people use these to do things. I was like, okay, could probably figure this out. And so I found myself a few years later getting a computer science degree from Virginia Tech. I was one of four women in my graduating class. And, yeah, there were not a lot of us there. And, um, it was before this thing called the World Wide Web, so let's just put it that way.

Speaker A: So.

Speaker C: So some of the things I got to see and be a part of in the tech space really early were a lot of fun. Um, but I found that I was the only one in the technology team that could translate to the business people, right? And so I was the one that could say, okay, this is what the technical people are trying to tell you. Business people and business people. This is, you know, this is what you need to make sure you're saying and how. So that the technical people know how to deliver on it. And then, you know, and I'm sure many of your listeners are this kind of person, where they are the ones that grab the whiteboard marker, go up to the whiteboard and start figuring out how to solve the problems and get the people to solve those problems, right? And it turns out there's this whole career called project management, where that's what they do is get people together to solve business problems. So I found my way, uh, quite accidentally into project management. And after doing that for a little while, you know, helping organizations figure out how to take their ideas and turn them into not just deliverables and outputs, but better business outcomes for the organization. I was tapped on the shoulder in the middle of the dot com insanity in the early or in the late 90s, I guess, and asked to set up what I now know was a project management office. At the time, it was just, we need somebody to herd the cats to get all these projects done, you know, for clients, right? And, and this is in the heyday of the dot com insanity. Everyone's in jeans and T shirts, lunch is being brought in every day. My CEO was 27. Like, everything was just kind of like wild west, right? So I learned to take all of the project people that had this work they had to do and figure out how to help them do it better, do it faster, get More reliable results and in a way that helped our company grow. And then I got good at doing that. But what happened was a lot of the things that I was finding out, like back then, you couldn't just Google how to set up a PMO project management office or, you know, what are the best practices and get the 8 to 10 million results you can get today. The problem back then was a lot of us were having to learn things from a bunch of people that were doing it in theory, not in practice. Um, and so the shoulds, all the shoulds I was supposed to be doing, turns out a lot of those shoulds were shove templates, tools and process of people create all this governance in this structure. And you know, it must be this way and to become the process police of an organization. And personally, I had never met an executive that said, wait, wait, wait, can you come back when you have five more templates for me to fill out?

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker C: Like, nobody cares. Like nobody wants your templates, they want results. Right? So I learned that a lot of the things that in my real world experience, what I was seeing that actually worked was different than what I had been taught. And so over the years, I just kept getting better at it. Had a lot of battle scars to prove, you know, that there is a way that works. And along that journey, I was asked to, um, speak about, oh, you know, PMOs and project management. Can you come speak about this? And so I would, terrified, I was so terrified. Not my thing, right. Um, that back then anyway. And I would find out that the things that I now took for granted were the things that people didn't know. And so I kept saying, no, no, no, don't do that, do this. And this way, here's what to do, why you should do it that way, how to do it so that you can actually help your company accelerate the delivery of their strategy. And I just. The light bulbs going off inspired me. And I said, oh, there's people that need to know these things. How can I make it easier for them than it was for me? And I, as now is in the beginning of my book, I used to say, I wish I had me when I was you. I wish somebody would have told me, don't do this, do that instead. Because that's how I best learn is from the experience of others. And so, um, I had no idea I was ever going to start a business. And. But here I am 11 years later, running a company that I built as a single mom. Um, which is also crazy, right? So I spent six years as A single mom between husbands and, uh, built a company at the same time. So I guess you could say I was, you know, raising two babies at once. Um, and, um, now that's what we do is we help organizations accelerate the delivery of their strategy using the best of project management and project management offices, business transformation capability, and really, uh, help them put common sense into common practice.

Speaker A: I love it so much, and I am like, just. I cannot wait to get into some of these things because I like some of the, the, um, pitfalls that you mentioned, the templates and the governance. Like, I just, like, I was triggered a bit for, from, like, my corporate experience. I'm not gonna lie. I was like, oh, no, that's exactly what we don't want, right? Like, just, um, like you said, nobody wants another five templates. But what I heard also in your, um, in your answer there was about making it easy for people. It's having them, like, do something that, that, um, is impactful, not only to the business, but for them, that, um, can also build their capability along the way. And so I heard all of those kinds of things, and it's almost like you're helping others, you are partnering with others. Are those some of the things that you care about? I'm obsessed with values, and we talk about values a ton on the podcast. So I always love to ask this question, like, tell me more about your core values and how that has impacted that journey that you just told us, and then even how you work with clients now.

Speaker C: So I am, um. There's a few things that, you know, I am a lot of things to a lot of people, I think, and I think as many women are, right. Uh, but I think for me, what I love to do is help people and fix things. Right? I would get in so much trouble as a kid because we would take things apart in my grandmother's house and put them back together. And, you know, one time I remember getting in so much trouble for doing it to an antique clock, but I said the clock didn't work, and now it does. Why am I in trouble? Right? So I, I loved helping people. And it's truly, uh. When I was in middle school, we had this whole thing where if you didn't have a certain grade, a grade point average, you couldn't go to the eighth grade prom. And I was so offended by that because I was like, all of these folks are eighth graders. They're all graduating, going off to, uh, going off to high school. This is a big point in their life. And it's not Fair that you're only letting certain people go to promote. So we created our own. Right? And so I got everybody together, we got the parents involved, and we had an amazing prom outside of the school at a hotel close by, and it was attended by everybody. And everyone boycotted the other one to send a message that everybody counts and everybody should be able to celebrate something huge like this. Right? So for me, it's always been a passion to take care of people, help people. My parents have called me mother Laura since I was 2 and telling them how they should raise my sister. You know, like, so it's just who I am. And so I think my value system is around, um, be a good person, take care of those around you. Um, you know, do unto others as you would have done to them. And, um, and trust. I was just telling some of our partners in different conversations this morning, like, my, like, trust is everything to me, and I want to like you. Right? Like, I want to work with people I like working with, and I have to trust you to be able to do that. And whether it's personal or professional, that everything is built around that. And that, I think is important and, and is woven into what I say, what I teach, what do we cover in our mastermind, how we work with our clients. The clear and compelling message for all of them is, I've got you.

Speaker A: I love it. So wonderfully said. Thank you so much. And I. And I cannot wait to dig in, um, to how you then do that with the. With the clients that you work with. And so you mentioned, um, kind of in your career story, just this idea of, like, you didn't even know what a project management office even was. Right. And so, yeah. And I. So I've been in companies where it has looked a little bit of a different way in each one. Sometimes it's like a pro. It's almost like a center of excellence. Like, it's a, um, they build capability. They do give lots of. In my experience, I was given many spreadsheets or smartsheets or right, you know, reports in a tableau. And then, you know, lots of templates and some of these. And then other times they're also like, um, maybe they have project managers within them that then get deployed out to organizations. So can you tell me just more about, holistically, about what a project management office or a PMO is and how companies are that may look different, might use the pmo, um, differently and what you've seen work best?

Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. Okay. So first and foremost, PMO could stand for a lot of things. One of the questions people would ask is what's the p? Right. Because it could be project or program or product or portfolio or all of these different things. And a lot of the industry has grown up believing that their purpose is to help execute work. Right? To be part of what we call the strategic execution stage of the world and just deliver projects. Right. Create deliverables. And that's, I think, part of where they've gotten it all wrong. Okay, so tell me more. Here's why. Because they, nobody cares about a perfect project. They care about, um, nobody cares if the deliverables are perfect, if the outputs are perfect. What business leaders, the reason that projects happen, projects are investments. They are investments and a future state that people are trying to get to. So every project happens because executives are saying we need to solve a problem, right? So this project management office has been um, unfortunately trained to believe that they are there to solve project problems, but in fact they are there to solve business problems. Right? So projects are about getting to an outcome, not creating a bunch of outputs and deliverables, but getting to a better business outcome that is aligned with the strategy. So a project management office is really about accelerating the delivery of your organization strategy and ensuring that the investments you've made achieve the highest possible return on investment as quickly as possible. And that return may not always be in dollars, but there better be a return, you know, there better be a worth it factor. Was this worth doing in the first place? And the only way that an organization can effectively, um, get their strategy delivered in a way that drives the highest possible return on investment is a really strong focus on not just strategy execution, but setting that strategy up for success before you ever start executing. So a lot of organizations really think they're struggling with the strategy to execution gap. Right. And you see all the books and the podcasts and the, you know, everything about closing the strategy to execution gap and, and the reason organizations can't close it is that they have fundamentally structured their organization to reinforce that gap.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker C: So think about that. And I want to say that again because I think this is something that's really important. Uh, many organizations have fundament fundamentally reinforced the gap between strategy and execution through their operating model. So how they have designed and how they do work and is, is reinforcing the them, you know, and has struggling, struggling with getting to the outcomes that they're trying to get to. And I'll give you a perfect example. Most organizations, the strategy people go off and they figure it out whether it's a retreat or behind closed doors, and they go figure out, this is what we're going to do. And then they maybe hold a town hall or they send out a PowerPoint or they do a newsletter or they say a thing and they're like, great, you got it, I'm out of here. And then they disappear, right? And so the strategy people come up with all these great ideas and this is what we want to do. Throw it over the fence to the execution people. Right? That fence is that gap, right? They're reinforcing and then they're gone. Right? And nobody's hanging out telling these execution people what they're doing, why they're doing it, and what success looks like. This is where a project management office or business transformation group or strategy delivery office, or whatever you want to call it, comes in. Because they can. Instead of, you know, instead of allowing for that, that strategy to be just thrown over the fence, they can go sit in the conversations with the strategy people and say, let's talk together about not just what you want to do and why you want to do it, but how we could actually make this happen in a way that ensures that we achieve those business outcomes you're trying to drive for. Are you clear on what those are yet? Okay, well, let's help you get clear on those first. Because if we don't, there's no way we can actually deliver on it. Right? Because everyone needs to understand it and understand why. So what? So unfortunately, a lot of pmo, and I was in this place myself, I had a lot of bad advice early in my career of like, what a PMO should do and really what it's there for is to accelerate the delivery of the strategy. So if you can re. If you can reimagine your operating model such that your strategy and your delivery capabilities, ability are together and in alignment through the entire strategy delivery process, you are ensuring that you will be successful in achieving your goals and doing it much faster than you've been able to do thus far. And this, I'm, um, telling you, this works every time. Every organization for, you know, we've been doing this for a really long time and we're seeing huge results from it because they have to fundamentally first rethink how they operate. And when you do, you, a project management office, no matter how big or small your company is, can actually get you there. And we've worked with companies, 12 people to tens of thousands, and you can use these techniques in this approach, you know, and you just have to right size it to work for the organization you're working in.

Speaker A: I, um, I love this, the, the gap that you discussed about the strategy to execution gap. And so here's how I've seen it play out this gap play out all the time. So you have the strategy like and usually it's built with consultants too, with all the PowerPoints. Yep. In the retreat or whatever. Sometimes they do, you know, the organization does to your point, like do an actual good job of, of saying what the strategy is. Here's the strategy. And then you're right. Then everybody kind of goes off and does their own thing. But what they think they, and they think they're doing the strategy because all of their projects on a spreadsheet link back to a pillar of the strategy. Right. I mhm. Will tell you there's lots of ways to link to do that link. And some are really good and some are not at all good. But to your point, like that business unit or region office or whatever, they're executing what they think are the right outcomes. They may not be. And so you do that times 100 or which however way that your organization is set up and then you're surprised at the end when like this project or this project was done but you didn't meet the strategy holistic outcomes. Right. Because it's been like sliced and diced so many different ways. And so tell me instead, what, what should we be doing at a macro level? What are companies doing that is working and, and who is doing that work? And like, tell me, even specifically like where would a PMO office sit? Where should they report to? Like those kind of tactical things like who, who are the people that are doing right way and like what are a couple of things that they're doing?

Speaker C: Sure. Well, so one of the things that the executives that are listening to this need to understand is that most of the people in the company, even though you've told them, have no idea what the strategy is. Right. Harvard uh, Business review reported that 95% of the typical workforce does not understand their company strategy. 95%, basically everyone. Right. The 5% are the people that went off and then built it with the consultants. Right. The rest of the organization has no idea. And what that means is it's not, it's not that you didn't tell them, but um, come on, you spent 45 minutes in a town hall talking about it and you're like okay, see, yeah, uh, right. That doesn't ingrain it into the way people operate. They don't really understand what it means for Them, they don't know how they're connected to it and they don't know how to help you get there. Right. So one of the big changes, and this is where we have been educating PMO people and transformation leaders and those in like the middle to upper level executive space that are responsible for delivery. That's where we've been educating them to rethink this whole, you know, problem. The reason they can't deliver it is because they don't understand it and they don't know what success looks like. Right. So this is what um, this project management office type function can do, is to help bridge that gap in understanding of what the strategy is and connecting it to the day to day, the work that the people are doing on these projects. But it has to be super clear what the outcome is you're trying to get to. And in most project people like that what they're learning is to perfect the outputs. Right? The way project people define success is on time, on scope, on budget. But I keep telling them nobody cares about on time, on scope, on budget if nobody uses the thing that you're creating, right? You can build the perfect website from a time scope and cost project process. And but along the way you were trying to manage so tightly the schedule and the budget. And so when the, when the business leaders came to you and said, oh, but wait, we really have to make this shift here, we need this change or it's not going to work. And you know, project people said no, no, no, no, we can't have change, no change. Right? It's got to, we got to keep our outputs, uh, perfect, we got to keep our timeline perfect, we got to keep our under budget. So they say no when, by the way, it's not, they're, they shouldn't be the ones saying no because they don't own it anyway. Um, it really belongs to those business people. They say no. So they pat themselves on the back for their own time, on scope, on budget. But along the way the market shifted or there was a change or there was a realization that something needed to be done differently in order for this to be a usable product at the end of the day. So while the project people are patting themselves on the back for a perfect, what they call triple constraint, time scope and cost, the, and so they're declaring success on that. The business leaders are looking for a new job, right? Because they didn't meet the business goals, they didn't achieve the outcomes that that project was supposed to realize. It wasn't worth it. The time Investment and money and focus and energy and resources did not. The worth of factor is not there. Right. So that's a really important shift. And one of the biggest challenges that we see in an organization is, uh, it's not really about the gap between strategy and execution. It's about the gap between understanding what people should like, what the leaders are trying to do, and deriving. Taking your vision, building a strategy, how we're going to get there, what are we going to do to get there, turning that into something that is manageable and understandable, your products and then your projects from that, and then keeping everybody in alignment with our vision and our strategy and why that matters and how we'll know it worked. Right? So if you can create that alignment throughout the organization, you will be successful. Because when people want to do good work, but they don't know how, and they don't really know what success looks like. And many organizations completely separate how they measure and reward people for performance from uh, the results of that strategy. And so they're not even incentivized to align their, you know, like to even be thinking about it. They're like, I'm just being told that I have to create 50 widgets. And if I create those 50 widgets then I get my raise or I get whatever, you know, those. And that's the problem is that there's no incentive, uh, there's no incentives tied to this strategy. The way the budget is handled for the projects is not in alignment with how managers are being told to, you know, results they're being told to get. And nobody knows what success looks like anyway. Right. So those are the kinds of things that you need to fix and when you're, when you fix those, when it works. Well, um, you asked where should this uh, function sit? That really depends on, you know, no PMO should look the same as any other. And we often get asked, can you come in and do um, you know, a comparison, uh, to the industry? And I say, why? Who cares what the industry's doing? Figure out what you need to do in the unique way that, and culture, culture that you work in and how you need to operate in order to achieve the results. Let's build the right sized thing for your organization. So where should it sit? Well, that depends on your structure. It often sits in a, um, I, my favorite place is reporting to the CEO or the president. Right. Because that's where the strategy is coming from. Right. And so let's make sure that the top executive is clearly connected to not just the definition of Their strategy, but then the entire strategy delivery lifecycle to ensure that it realizes, you know, the intended business benefits. Right. So I like it as high up in the organization as possible. Definitely reporting to someone in the C suite. If not the CEO, the CEO, the chief Strategy Officer. You know, it really depends on, we work with some clients that have three C suite people and others that have 30. Right. Or multiple businesses that all have their own C suite. So it really depends on, on how you're structured. But it's gotta be in a place that is not buried five layers in your organization or you have intentionally set it up for failure because it will fail if it doesn't have the kind of overhead, influence, support and um, direct engagement with where the strategy is being developed.

Speaker A: Oh, I love that advice so much and I love the counsel that you give. I think often we're always trying to benchmark with somebody, oh, well, externally, what should we do compared to this successful company or this one? And I think that is, to your point, it's like a trap we fall into often because we sometimes just need to look internally instead of looking outside. Let's just, let's look inside. I know that's hard to do, but I love that advice. So, so tell me more about how then you work with clients and tell me even more specifically about your book and your impact framework. I want to, I want to know a little bit more about that.

Speaker C: Absolutely. So, uh, the, the, as we were talking about before when we were in the green room, um, you know, the Impact Engine, which is the name of the book, uh, it was, it was officially born in September of 2024. Uh, but I can tell you I've been gestating that baby for more than a decade.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Um, and as many authors, um, I'm sure can, uh, can um, laugh at because they've been on that journey as well. Um, so, uh, it's called the Impact Engine. Accelerating Strategy Delivery for PMO and transformation Leaders. And so it's for these people that are mid to upper level executive types that are, um. So that's one thing. If you're listening to this and you're like, oh, well, our PMO is being run by like a junior project manager. Well, there's your problem. Right. You need people. And that's what we do is we often go in and help build that capability. I share some stories in the book with, you know, one company we worked with that had, you know, only like 12 employees. And you know, and we've also worked with ones that had hundreds of people in just the PMO itself. And so the idea is, is that we can help. What we often do is we come into an organization where they've got a problem they're trying to solve. Sometimes they don't even know that that is the problem. Or they'll say, typically C suite executives still hire us and say, my projects are taking too long and costing too much. That's like a typical complaint. And then what happens is, like, go fix project management. I'm m. Like, okay, we'll go take a look. Usually, and here's a little secret. It's not project management that's broken. And many times we will tell executives, listen, if it was actually a project management problem, you would have solved it by now. If you needed more templates, tools, and process, that's an easy thing to fix. Usually it's all these things we're talking about with the entire strategy lifecycle being challenged and, and the problems that they're having are often before projects ever start. Here's a perfect example. If. If your people come to you and say, what's the priority? And you say, well, everything is important, you know what? You've effectively told them, nothing is important.

Speaker A: Oh, my. Can we just say that again? Because in my. In my work with executive C suite teams, uh, leaders, this is, this is the. The rub. Like, we cannot. We add. We do not prioritize. We just add more stuff. Oh, my goodness. Yes.

Speaker C: Yeah. So. So when everything is important, nothing is important. And you. You can hear that, but I need you to feel it, right? Because that's really one of the most, um, that's one of the first things we find when we go in and we start diagnosing. Because a lot of people will say projects are, you know, the problem. And so a lot of people will attack that. Right? And what happens is, is they are playing Whack a Mole. Remember that game like, you know, when we were kids, Whack a mole with a bunch of symptoms, and they're not actually getting to the root cause. So when we do our root cause analysis, we come in and do an assessment, we do a root cause analysis, we find out what's actually causing the problems. And the good news is, is there usually fewer things to fix? And you fix those, and they create a positive ripple effect in the whole organization because they're actually addressing the right things, the right fundamental problems. But here's what I want all of your executives listening to really internalize. It's not just everything's important, but let's talk about how that plays out. You have all of these project people that are desperately trying to make movement across a hundred different projects. And you are taking your most critical resources, your subject matter experts, which you always have too few of. And what you are doing is you are spreading them across 20 different projects at one time. And so who is getting anything done with 1/20 of a person, right? Like, all that person is doing is task switching all day. And, oh, by the way, the project people are coming to that person saying, how you doing on this? Are you done yet? Are you done yet? And, uh, and they're having to practice the squeaky wheel because that's the only one that gets any attention. And so now you have 20 squeaky wheels yelling at this one subject matter expert. And she's going, I can't get it all done. Right? And so all she, like, her brain is on overload because all she's doing is task switching all day long from one thing to the next to the next and never actually making progress. So imagine a lot of people think, oh, well, I'm a good multitasker. No, you're not. You are terrible at it. There's no such thing as good multitasking. What you're doing is you're task switching. So imagine every time you are interrupted, it's like rebooting your computer. When you want to go from one app to the next app to the next, that's what happens to our brains. And so not only are they exhausted, but they have very little time to actually focus on getting results. And so that's why a lot of these problems that we're, um, that we see is we help them go figure out what all those things are and show the executives, many of the executives. I'll tell you, I can't. Every CEO I talk to says, everybody wants me to make decisions, but I don't even have the information I need to do so. But then you go talk to the project people or the PMO people, and they say, well, but I gave them 22 reports. I'm like, exactly. You know, you gave them a bunch of data, but it wasn't even turned into information, and it wasn't actionable or, uh, uh, given to the executives in a way that they could actually make decisions quickly, right? So you have all these executives on information overload with decision fatigue that are struggling to actually help their organizations move forward. And they're just. Their brains are fried. And at the same time, they're like, but hurry up and get all this stuff done. And also, everything's important Because I really want to serve people. And that's the thing, Laura.

Speaker A: I mean, I feel like you are like, like watching some of my coaching sessions and like some of the things that people are like, struggling with. This is exactly the day in the life. I know everybody, everybody is resonating with us right now.

Speaker C: Yeah. It's just, it's tough. It's it. And I get it. But there are ways to solve it. And when you do, when you can get people into flow and what we do with our clients is we get them to a place where they are able to 2x, 3x, 4x, even 5x, the amount of like the good projects that they can get done in a year because they're so, they're, they're. Their, um, performance accelerates so quickly when we get them to focus, when we get them to prioritize, when we get them to create focus with their teams, when we get them to stagger the work throughout the year. You know, you want something crappy that's never going to get done, or do you want something done well, you know, but maybe it starts six months from now. Right. And you actually get the results. And oh, by the way, you get so many more things done. So there are a lot of things that you, that we go in and help organizations do. And that's what the impact engine system that I talk about in the book, the Impact Engine is all about, is a continuous value delivery model of, um, helping organizations go through 90 day cycles of building and implementing capability that helps create what we call an impact engine for organizations.

Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. I love it. I, um, I think you hit so many of the pain points, and I know we're not going to be able to solve like all of these problems on this podcast, which is why I wish, which is why everybody needs to get your book, um, for sure. But is there, um, besides getting the book and digging into some of this material, is there something that you think that executives and leaders can do right now that can help them with some of this stuff? What's, what's an actionable tip that m. That they might, or even a mindset shift that they might, um, that might be helpful for them as they start this work?

Speaker C: Yeah. So. Well, first of all, we've got tons of resources that I'm happy to point your listeners to. They're totally free to just, you know, start this journey. Um, but first and foremost, um, the, and this is something as a CEO myself now for 11 years and building that, you know, my team is growing and we're taking on even more work all over the world. And it's all awesome. I struggle with this, um, this desire because remember I started this, the conversation with I want to help people. Right? Yeah. So I myself have, uh, I've had to train my people to ask me what is the priority of this, because I have ideas coming out of my ears constantly. I have all these things I want to do and it's all coming. That's the important thing I think people should realize and also give themselves a break a little. Right. So all of your listeners, I totally get it. You want to help people, you want to serve, you want to do really important things, you want to make an impact. But the secret is going to be in getting super clear on, uh, what you want to do, why you want to do it, and what success looks like. Right? And talk to your project people about it. Talk to the people that are responsible for delivering your organization about those three things. And when you do, it's so much easier to get everybody. People will start to change their behaviors. I've seen this happen myself, not even telling them anything else. Or just give them, give them those three things and give, uh, them some priorities and let them go focus on those. And when you start doing that, you know, you will see change happen in your organization and people will be happier for it.

Speaker A: I love it. I think those are very important questions and a really good time of year to think about that. So I have. Oh my goodness. I have so enjoyed our conversation. What is the best way for us to keep connected and, and learning from you?

Speaker C: Absolutely. So we do. So I'm a content machine.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: So much goodness. Uh, so of course we have the Impact Engine book. It is out. We also have the audiobook and the ebook and you can get it on all the platforms. Uh, we also, um, sell it directly from our website, impactengine book.com um, because I just want to get it into as many eyes, ears and minds of everybody. Uh, so that of course we have the podcast, the uh, PMO Strategies podcast, which has hundreds of episodes and ideas and ahas for your audience. And, um, definitely connect with me on LinkedIn if you've got questions, if you need help, if there's anything we can do to support you. Uh, and we write, I write a lot of articles for C Suite magazines. So if you go to pmostrategies.com or impactengine book.com and just click on media, you will see stuff for CIOs, CEOs, you know, small business owners and everybody that is looking to elevate their impact. We've got articles, podcasts, so much stuff there and this podcast episode will be there as well.

Speaker A: Awesome. And we're going to put all of the links that you just mentioned in our show notes too so that our listeners wonderful find them very easily. Well Laura, thank you so much for sharing your thought leadership. I loved spending um, time with you today.

Speaker C: Oh, thank you so much for having me. And to all the all of your audience members, thank you for doing the hard work that you're doing to accelerate the impact in your organization.

Speaker B: Well, that's a wrap of this episode of you Belong in the C Suite. A huge thank you to Laura for her time, wisdom and breaking down the mindset shifts that we all need around strategy, execution and project outcomes. As you think about this episode, what resonated most with you? How can you continue to align your team's work to your strategic goals and what's getting in your way? I want you to learn more from Laura. Definitely check out her book the Impact Engine and tune into her podcast PMO Strategies. There's so many really great topics. All the links she mentions are in the show notes. And remember, your leadership belongs here. You belong in the C Suite. I want to thank you so much for listening to the youe Belong in the C Suite podcast. If you are enjoying this content, please remember to rate and review on Apple Podcasts. By leaving a review, you are helping others find this content.

Speaker A: We will be featuring five star reviews

Speaker B: on air in upcoming episodes and editing and support for the podcast is done by S and E Podcast Management. To get more tips and tools to help you live a life guided by your values, go to TheCatchGroup.com keep your boundaries and take care.