Louise Worsley
Evolving role of the PMO
In a rapidly shifting business landscape, the role of the Project Office has evolved beyond delivering projects—it must now demonstrate measurable value. Louise Worsley explored how expectations for change and project professionals, offices, and organisations have evolved over the past decade. Drawing from her experience evaluating global PMO award applications and working with various management offices, she raised thought-provoking questions about value, technology’s impact, change management offices, and the future.
These thought-provoking questions at the end of each segment were later addressed in breakout sessions, where the audience was split into smaller groups. Louise’s insights highlighted how organisations must redefine governance, leverage AI, and embed change management into their operational approach to remain competitive.
Governance
Leverage AI
Embed change
Measuring value in the Project Office
Louise challenged the assumption that completing projects equates to success. Instead, she emphasised the need for organisations to quantify impact—a shift that demands new frameworks like the Value Ring. This model encourages project teams to clearly define, measure and communicate the benefits they bring. Teams should clearly be able to articulate what value is being offered – whether it’s cost savings, efficiency gains, risk reduction, or innovation. It also forces organisations to identify who benefits from this value – whether it’s senior leadership, employees, customers, or external stakeholders.
Thought-Provoking Questions:
How are you better defining value?
How are you measuring value?
How are you communicating value?
Who are the stakeholders that value is being delivered to?
The case for adaptive governance
Governance has long been associated with control, but Louise argued that rigid structures often hinder progress. Traditional governance models often enforce strict policies that slow down decision-making, whereas Adaptive Governance allows organisations to adjust their processes in response to evolving business needs, focusing on flexibility and learning.
The shift requires leaders to rethink their approach:
• Resource Allocation: Teams must be able to pivot, adjusting skills and resources as needed.
• Leadership’s Role: Senior management must transition from enforcing compliance to a value-driven approach. This means focusing less on rigid oversight and more on empowering teams to deliver outcomes effectively.
Thought-Provoking Questions:
How are we tailoring governance to enable change rather than control it?
Leveraging Technology and AI
The next two AI-related segments Louise discussed clearly excited the audience, as AI remains a hot topic across organisations. However, its implementation comes with challenges. Louise highlighted AI’s potential to revolutionise project management—not by replacing human decision-making, but by enhancing foresight and efficiency, thus allowing organisations to act proactively rather than reactively. AI can identify project risks early by analysing patterns in historical data, helping managers act before problems escalate.
Thought-Provoking Questions:
How will we develop the approaches and rules for implementing AI within organisations?
What are the consequences of using AI without proper governance in place?
AI-driven sentiment analysis
Louise discussed how AI-driven sentiment analysis can assess the tone of Project Status Reports by analysing the words used by project managers. I found this very interesting because, having worked across multiple PMOs, I could envision the potential insights AI could offer in this area. However, the key to extracting valuable outputs from AI is ensuring that PMs input the right information into their status reports, accurately reflecting the project’s status. These are examples of how tone can reveal hidden project health indicators:
Positive sentiment
Positive sentiment
Neutral sentiment
Neutral sentiment
Negative sentiment
Negative sentiment
Additionally, Louise went on to explain how AI can improve organisational communication by offering pre-set email prompts that adjust tone and messaging to suit different scenarios. This helps standardise communication across diverse cultural backgrounds where English is not the native language, ensuring clarity and reducing misunderstandings. This was a challenge which individuals who work within multinational organisations said they often experience.
Example Prompts for AI-Generated Emails:
Encouraging Collaboration:
“I want the email to encourage teamwork and open dialogue.”
Provoking Thought:
“I want the email to prompt critical thinking and deeper discussion.”
Why Is This Necessary?
In global organisations, employees come from various cultural backgrounds with different communication styles. Some may be more direct and assertive, while others may be indirect and deferential. AI-driven email assistance can help standardise and refine communication while maintaining a professional tone that aligns with organisational culture.
Key thoughts from the audience:
• Security Concerns – Many organisations are hesitant to adopt AI due to data security risks. One solution is to use on-premise AI models rather than cloud-based AI to mitigate security vulnerabilities.
• Financial Concerns – Implementing AI is often perceived as costly. However, Small Language Models (SLMs) tailored to specific use cases can be more affordable than general-purpose large AI models. Additionally, AI saves costs in the long run by reducing inefficiencies and improving decision-making.
Louise Worsley Evolving role of the PMO
To conclude, Louise touched on how organisations often focus on delivering projects rather than driving change. The challenge is shifting the mindset from project-focused execution to a change-driven culture. Louise addressed the following two areas:
Evolving from Project-Focused to Change-Focused
A project-focused mindset tends to prioritise deadlines, budgets, and deliverables, whereas a change-focused mindset prioritises sustainable transformation and business outcomes. This means embedding continuous improvement into every project rather than viewing change as a one-time event.
Do We Need to Start Again?
If an organisation is too deeply entrenched in traditional project delivery models, a gradual shift may not be enough. In such cases, a fresh approach—such as redefining governance structures and rethinking success metrics—may be required. Revolution or Evolution?
Louise explored topics highly relevant to organisations developing a modern PMO, offering a fresh perspective that sparked strong engagement in the room. Thank you to Louise for sharing these valuable insights.
