From Strategy to Execution: Positioning TMO and PMO Teams for Maximum Impact

An overview with Lenka Pincot

We are pleased to welcome Lenka Pincot, Chief of Staff to the CEO at PMI, to our place reserved for experts at PPM Hub. With her extensive international experience and proven track record in setting and executing strategic vision, leading digital transformation, driving culture shifts, and enhancing organizational agility, Lenka is instrumental in fostering innovation and excellence.

Join us for the remainder of the interview, where she will share her valuable insights on the topic “From Strategy to Execution: Positioning TMO and PMO Teams for Maximum Impact,” highlighting the benefits of effective leadership in driving organizational success.

To begin, Welcome to the PPM Hub, could you share an overview of your professional journey and how it has shaped your expertise at the intersection of strategy, transformation, and project management? What pivotal experiences have defined your approach in these areas?

Lenka Pincot

My career has been a journey of connecting strategy with action. I studied Computer Sciences and at the same time, I was interested in business strategies, industry dynamics, and the role that information technology plays in that. This led me to my first job as an analyst working on projects to support CEOs in organization transformations.

I stayed in the management consultancy for about 10 years. Later I moved across different industries in various transformation leadership roles connecting business objectives, innovation, technology and people-centered change management.

During the work on my first projects, I realized the value of aligning change initiatives with an overarching strategic vision. I’ve learned that success lies at the intersection of clarity, agility, leadership, and human-centricity. A pivotal moment for me was navigating a large-scale innovation project during the Industry 4.0 era that required not just operational changes, technology knowledge, and fast response in a challenging landscape of quickly progressing competition. To succeed, we need to achieve a mindset shift of our teams towards agility and start doing things differently to keep us with focus on sustainability and innovation of our customers.

In large organizations, the roles of TMO and PMO often intersect but serve distinct purposes. Could you explain the difference between the two, how they connect to support strategic transformation, and perhaps share a successful example of how this connection was implemented effectively?

Lenka Pincot

The TMO (Transformation Management Office) and PMO (Project Management Office) both enable change, but they operate at different levels. The TMO typically drives strategic transformation, focusing on long-term goals and enterprise-wide agility.

In our case, at PMI, our TMO team also directly support our culture shift and delivers development program for our managers that we call “Transformation READY laboratory” and “Transformation FORUM” – both programs focus on strengthening the connection between the strategy and execution by empowering our managers and equipping them with growth mindset.

In case of PMI, our EPMO – Enterprise Program Management Office, manages enterprise project execution, their integration with our agile teams, and ensuring that projects and the value they expect to deliver advances our strategy PMI:Next.

Having led strategic transformations, what do you consider the most critical factors in aligning digital transformation with organizational goals? Could you share examples from your experience?

Lenka Pincot

I promote a holistic view on transformation where digital, agile, sustainability transformations are treated as business transformations. After all, what matters most is the value that is created when these transformations are successful. Digital technologies help us achieve our business objectives because they enable innovation, but digitalization should never be an objective on its own without a greater purpose.

Key factors for digital transformation success include a clear business vision, understanding of the value we deliver to our customers, and managing alignment between investments in digital capabilities and this vision.

During my career, I had the opportunity to work with teams working in agile setups. They applied iterative and incremental approaches with frequent feedback loops to stay closely connected with their customers and strengthening their capabilities to understand and address customer needs. One of my roles was to facilitate regular dialogues between the C-suite and leaders of these agile teams so that we could translate this dialogue into a greater understanding of business growth via excellence of our customer-facing digital products.

In your career, you’ve focused on advancing methods to boost enterprise agility and customer centricity in alignment with strategic business objectives. Could you tell us a bit more about how TMO and PMO teams can effectively adopt these methods to drive agility and deliver value to customers?

Lenka Pincot

To drive agility and deliver value, TMO and PMO teams need to establish and promote transparency to make sure all leaders have adequate inputs for their decision making. TMO and PMO also need to embrace intentional hybrid approaches where predictive project management practices and agile practice co-exist and are applied to make the best fit to problems the change initiatives are addressing.

At PMI, we track the increase of hybrid approached via our annual survey of the project management profession and we are continuously updating our certifications and learnings to support project professionals in this transition.

Another important aspect is encouraging cross-functional collaboration and embedding frequent feedback loops and open dialogue. I’ve seen tremendous impact when teams co-create solutions with customers and stakeholders ensuring continuous alignment with their needs. But to speak the customer language and cultivate business acumen, professionals need to learn continuously to understand market changes and stay current with the technology innovation.

Organizational culture is often a determining factor in the success of transformation initiatives. What steps do you recommend for PMOs to foster a culture that supports both agility and resilience?

Lenka Pincot

Because PMOs are at the heart of changes and transformation, behavior and mindset of PMO leaders and project professionals sets the tone. As facilitators of change across an enterprise, they are often seen as role models.

Project professionals can deploy multiple tactics to support the culture shift. Regular retrospectives, celebrating even small wins, transparent communication, and a focus on psychological safety can create an environment where people are willing to experiment and learn.

But project professionals also need to work on their own development and resilience to be successful in the challenging environment or organizational transformation in a long run.

Can you describe a specific initiative you led to increase employee engagement within your organization? What methods did you use to facilitate workshops and coaching sessions, and how did you address any challenges that arose during retrospectives?

Lenka Pincot

As I mentioned earlier, we launched two initiatives, Transformation FORUM and Transformation READY laboratories for our managers to give them a voice in the transformation and to equip them with skills to lead transformations of their own teams.

Our facilitation techniques are based on empathy and acknowledgement that any change if hard – it brings anxiety and uncertainty, so we provide a safe space for people to express these feelings. But change and transformation also brings opportunities for growth, and that’s what we demonstrate during our sessions where we focus on growth mindset, transformation readiness, forward thinking and improvement of our processes, collaboration and communication.

Lastly, what advice would you give to leaders looking to position their TMO or PMO teams for maximum impact in a constantly evolving business environment?

Lenka Pincot

To position your TMO or PMO for maximum impact, focus on three areas: alignment, adaptability, and people. First, ensure your teams are always connected to strategic priorities. Second, embrace intentional hybrid environment of project delivery approaches to navigate change effectively. Finally, invest in your people—create opportunities for upskilling, foster collaboration, and lead with empathy. It’s not just about delivering projects – it’s about delivering value.

Lenka Pincot, Chief of Staff to the CEO at PMI
Lenka is a global executive leader and Chief of Staff to the CEO with expertise in driving strategic initiatives, transformation efforts, and operational excellence within a global not-for-profit organization.

She oversees the Transformation Management Office, Enterprise Program Management Office, CEO & Board communications, and Thought Leadership teams, ensuring alignment of strategic goals with operational execution. Lenka’s leadership fosters innovation and excellence, positioning her organization as a thought leader in project management.Her extensive international experience spans strategic vision-setting, digital transformation, organizational agility, culture shifts, and Agile leadership. Prior to her current role, she led Agile transformations in the financial sector, promoting customer-centricity, Citizen Development, and digital leadership. Lenka is highly credentialed, holding a Master’s in Software Engineering, a Digital Excellence Diploma from IMD Business School, and certifications including PMP, PMI-PBA, and PMI-ACP. Her track record highlights her ability to build high-performing teams and deliver impactful transformation results.