“The older I get, the less I listen to what people say and the more I watch what they do.”
He was talking about standards of conduct.
An organization’s standards of conduct are the guts behind the values. And they are often too general or too legalize. Standards should provide direction on the right behavior, not just the legal behavior. Legal behavior satisfies the law; right behavior is consistent with personal and organization values. The difference is critical.
Remember, just because it is legal, does not mean it is right.
Total Quality Auditing® (TQA) is all about increasing the value added by internal auditing through changing the behavior in the organizations that we serve. The second point of focus of TQA is Standards of Conduct… because Carnegie got it right – it’s all about what people do, not what they say.
Are actions consistent with values and are they contributing to the objectives of the organization? I believe Internal audit has a role to make sure they do.
How? By ensuring that standards are meaningfully established and administered. By ensuring that standards are enforced, that expectations set by the standards have consequences (good or bad). To ensure the standards are taken seriously across the organization.
Why? Because if standards aren’t taken seriously, they lead to unacceptable risks and a free for all environment. Just think about Facebook’s $5 billion fine or the chaos at Uber.
In 2020, I will once again offer a series of webinars covering all the key elements of Total Quality Auditing – influencing an ethical culture with effective standards of conduct, techniques to identify high risk areas and perform lean auditing, obtaining impactful feedback, auditing with grit and much, much more.
Sign up before the first webinar on January 21st and receive a complimentary Total Quality Auditing® book and workbook (a $59.99 value.)
