Forest and Trees

It's interesting to see how people's personalities and experiences shape how they approach their job. Prior to being an auditor I was a probation & parole officer for many years. There was a diachotomy within this profession similar to what you see with police and many other professions. Some probation/parole officers were distrustful and punitive. Their expectations of offenders was very high and they had little sympathy for those who didn't meet those expectations. Other officers were not necessarily sympathetic but they recognized the humanity in offenders and tried to work on improving the skills that were needed to survive free of new arrest.

There is some of this in the auditing profession. Some auditors are very focused on detail and ensuring that everything is procedurally correct. The smallest detail, if not followed, deserves to be exposed in an audit report and is as important as any other finding. In effect, they lose sight of the forest for the trees.

One reason I like performance auditing is because you look at the detail but you also consider the totality. Over the years I have found that most employees, probably 99%, are trying to do a good job. They may know how they could do the job better and may be prevented from doing so because management doesn't hear their concerns or there isn't the time and resources.

As a performance auditor you look at what is trying to be accomplished. You examine how the program is trying to achieve it and what is in their way. Sure they may not be following their procedures exactly but there may be a legitimate reason why.

An auditor by the nature of their work has the time to contemplate the alternative. In government, managers and employees have little time to reflect on or redesign services. The craft of the auditor is to observe, study, analyze, and reflect back. I believe that to be effective, an auditor must be able to communicate what we see and how it could be changed. Our job is not to be punitive and shame employees. Our job is to get government to improve.