Prabha was smiling as she entered the club as she had just undergone a successful ISO 9000 audit of her project. She was thrilled and exclaimed, “It is such a nice feeling when you come out with just some minor observations in an audit. It was an independent auditor, and he went through all our processes, conducted interviews and it was an open discussion and he also gave us some good suggestions for improvement”
Kaushik started comparing it with Bridge, “It is not enough to play Bridge, but it is important to analyse every deal, look at unforced errors and areas of improvement. Sometimes, an independent review by a coach will help you resolve items which are not observed by the players. The coach plays the role of an auditor in Bridge”.
Padma observed that there are constructive audits and fault-finding audits. She added, “When auditors play the role of a consultant by pointing out errors and how to go about correcting the error, then it becomes a constructive audit. We sometimes get nasty auditors who are on a fault-finding mission and not playing a constructive role. Same with coaches. Good Coaches carry their students by encouraging them by pointing out the errors in a positive tone while students move away from a coach if he appears to be intimidating”.
Kingo was getting bored of the discussion, “I don’t believe in audits and coaching – they are a waste of time. The best coach or auditor is yourself – if you can recognize and take the required corrective actions by observation and learning, you will become a better professional or bridge player”.
Kaushik was not in agreement with Kingo. He was of the view that there must be arm’s length relationship in any activity like a maker and checker. If the independence between maker and checker is not there, one may miss many important points which you may bypass as you think it is not important. Coaches in Bridge guide you on errors which are overlooked by you – not intentionally, but because you neve realized it was an error.
Padma summarized the discussion in a nice way – “While Auditing seems to be looked at negatively by auditees, coaching seems to be viewed positively in sports though both are fundamentally the same – sport errors and improve. Auditing needs to change its image.
Tailpiece:
Goofy had never heard about auditing before. He was wondering that street dogs are never audited but when he is pet in house every action is monitored and corrected as required. I think pet dogs are audited daily by their masters.
