Audits
In my opinion, there is one mis-understood concept, the audit. How many “audits” have you performed? What does the word audit mean? Typically, it means that you have to find something wrong. In my opinion, this is the case with most auditors. We feel that if we do not find anything wrong, then we are not doing our jobs and out BOSSES, Not Leaders, will be upset with us. In my opinion some auditors find joy in finding things wrong.
We need to get over this attitude and stop looking for all the “bad” things that have happened. After many year in the safety arena, I have done it various ways, but have learned that you need to be fair and only report what you find. Do not out of your way to find something wrong. I would encourage you to look at “audit” as a “conformance appraisal”, which means looking at your management system to see how it is conformance to your expectations. This will help to keep you focused on a positive approach. Under these conditions, you will be focusing on conformance to practices and procedures of the management system and/or program requirements. We continually need to understand how to focus on the positive aspects of safety.
