The issue is that we are all sometimes guilty of only using the frameworks audited against every year (or however often they are audited) in the month the audit is due. You go into the cabinet and dust off the folder of materials from last time and then update; making it up as best as you can to try and score the most points.
Sound familiar? Don't you want to get the best score?
Begin with the outcome in mind. It is worth remembering an audit’s purpose.
The definition of the word is to conduct a systematic review of and its origin is from late middle english from the Latin auditus ‘hearing’ deriving from audire ‘hear’.
It’s this point that staggers me every time, the fact that (unless your job depends on a certain ‘score’; and how often does that actually happen) the value of the audit is in your listening to the feedback.
Don’t see the one day audit as something in which you have to justify your team’s processes and performance against; see it as your own private consultant who has just spent eight hours looking for ways to help you improve what you and your team does.
Don’t fear an audit, embrace it.
Please see my website at www.managingforthefirsttime.com for more techniques, tips and advice on this topic and others.
(Photo by DaveFayram via flickr used under a creative Commons Licence)
No comments:
Post a Comment