How audits grow a Quality mindset

We've been talking about audits in the last few posts, so I thought it was very timely earlier this week when I ran across an article called "3 things to love about internal audits." The author is Sara Adams of Greenlight Guru. And while some of the points she makes are ones we have discussed before, she also takes the topic in new directions.

The three things Adams loves about internal audits are these:

• Internal audits empower quality-driven, cross-functional teams.
• Great internal audits spot potential issues before they become real problems.
• A risk-based approach to internal audits makes for better prioritization.

We've discussed her second point at some length when talking about how audits are a value-added activity that uncover areas of the business which need attention. (See, e.g., this post.) And her third point is a good one that might be worth deeper exploration in the future. But it's her first point that I want to talk about today.

It turns out that one of the best ways to engage your people with the Quality system is to ask them to help with internal audits. Don't limit yourself to the Quality department. People across the organization can be trained to do audits, if they show an interest and if their managers are willing to let them put in the time. And the benefits show up in several ways.

One benefit is that your auditors bring a variety of perspectives to their work. Quality professionals can get in a rut like anyone else; if all your audits are conducted by Quality personnel, there's a risk that they will always follow the same predictable lines. But if you've got one auditor from Project Management, another from Manufacturing, and another from Purchasing, they will be attuned to different kinds of risks and will end up asking different questions. This diversity of approach can only strengthen your audit program.

Another benefit is that when people from multiple departments are all trained to do audits, they come to understand why the Quality system has the rules it does. Sometimes Quality rules can look pretty arbitrary if you don't know the reason behind them. But as you train people to carry out internal audits, they learn how many different things can go wrong and why the rules are in place to begin with. Then when their colleagues start grumbling about this or that requirement, they can explain where it came from. It's an effective and low-key way to let Quality thinking seep into your organization.

I once worked for a company that took this one step farther. After one of their brightest software architects had one-too-many fight with the Quality department, they assigned him to a two-year stint working in Quality and made him responsible to get ISO 9001 certification for a recent acquisition. He was really good in his new role, and I learned a lot from working alongside him. What's more, he was able to communicate with engineers who felt the way he used to feel, because he understood their point of view.

Organizations often struggle with the question how to encourage a Quality mindset across the board. One way is to enlist people from many different departments to help with internal audits.