I don’t have enough time to perform audits.
It was 9am Tuesday morning. I assigned the weekly visual management board audit to a staff manager and I could hear the unsaid words looking in their eyes.
It was 10am on a Thursday morning. I asked the process improvement manager, “Why do we need to audit ourselves weekly?” I was questioning both the value and frequency of self-audits.
Then my view changed….
I’ve found peace with internal audits.
Let’s be honest. Audit is kin to four-letter words in our current work culture. I’ve observed rolling eyes, sighs, and bad behavior when the word is spoken. You probably have too. But here’s a game changer; audits done the right way are beneficial. They can be more than checking a box. They can help make us better.
To get the most out of audits, I had to first understand the primary purpose of the audit is not find errors, but to identify waste and improve flow and processes. That mindset is part of lean thinking. It is a mindset that wants to know when processes are not running according to standards or when established metrics don’t meet expected values. I only came to understand this when I slowed down and thought through the content of the audit standards as I conducted the review. I had to look beyond a score and a check-off. I had to examine if the team was completing work according to standards, if we were adding value, and if we were removing wastes from our processes.
Our journey started by first defining department standards to check during the audit and the rating scale for scoring. We chose an audit frequency of weekly. It seems like alot (and feels like it), but starting out we want to establish standards and enforce expected behavior changes. Ideally, each week a different manager is assigned the task of auditing.
The audit sheet is a grid showing the standard, the rated score, and a box for written observations. If any standard is rated below the acceptable minimum score then a countermeasure is assigned to an owner to correct.
I don’t have enough time to perform audits.
Back to this common answer or excuse not to perform team audits. Here’s a few ways to overcome it:
(1) Keep it simple – Try to maintain less than 12 audit standards so the audit can be conducted quickly. My preference is the audit should take no more than 30 minutes.
(2) Make the results irresistible – Make the audit results focus on process improvement not process deficiency. Sure this is a spin-on-words, but it’s perspective of ‘why’ the audit is important. When the team sees the results can make them better, then time to do the audits will no longer be a factor. In fact, they’ll think we don’t have time not to perform the audit.
Onward and upward!
Photo Credit – https://flic.kr/p/TcaZyN – by GotCredit