A Quick Note About Disaster Recovery

Posted on Apr 12, 2013

Recently, I had a very sobering experience. Last week I asked a group of about 100 internal auditors if, in the last five years, they had done an audit of the organization's disaster recovery plan, or had been involved in a disaster recovery test.
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Internal Audit Jokes

Posted on Apr 10, 2013

For no reason that I can think of – a collection of internal audit jokes. That is, jokes for internal auditors, not about internal auditors.
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Surprise Me

Posted on Apr 8, 2013

When was the last time you surprised an auditee/client/customer? I don't mean the "Gotcha" surprise. I don't mean the "Your Director just took off to the Bahamas with all your net worth" surprise. I mean the "Wow, I didn't expect that, are you sure you're from auditing?" surprise.

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Ghost Writers in the Sky

Posted on Apr 5, 2013

Today on WIIA, we've got a real oldie for you – a Western classic – a song they sang out in the field as auditors gathered around the campfire after a hard day's work of reviewing paper files, completing twelve-column worksheets, and writing reports using paper and mechanical pencils.
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Just Three Words

Posted on Apr 1, 2013

Quick. No thought. Don’t look it up. No cheating. Without a moment’s hesitation. Tell me your department’s or your organization's vision or mission statement.
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Some Quick Thoughts About Creativity

Posted on Mar 29, 2013

Recently, creativity keeps rearing its ugly head around me. The following are sets of thoughts that almost make sense together.
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You Might Be an Irritating Auditor

Posted on Mar 27, 2013

Very often, even your best friends won't tell you. But there is a chance you suffer from the heartbreak of being an irritating auditor. Below, a list of symptoms which indicate you might, indeed, be an irritating auditor.
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Why Does it Always Happen?

Posted on Mar 25, 2013

I am a packrat. There, I've said it. I keep things. I collect things. I have a lot of trouble throwing things away. I am a packrat. (The first step is admitting you have a problem. However, the most important step is wanting to change. Haven't gotten to that step yet.)
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Report from GAM Number 3 - Do Not Ask for Whom the Pendulum Swings

Posted on Mar 19, 2013

I had an interesting conversation on Twitter yesterday. I was watching the excellent presentation by the group from Cox Enterprises. They were explaining how they had completely transformed their audit department over the last couple of years. (Some really good information and, if you happen to run into any of them, snag them and make them share. You will learn from their experiences.)
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Report from GAM Number 4 - People, People, People

Posted on Mar 19, 2013

It seems that every conference builds its own theme. Now, I don't mean the announced theme such as "Progress through Sharing" or "The Right Audit at the Right Time" or "We Will Conduct No Audit Before Its Time" or any of the myriad other themes the marketing people develop. No, I am speaking of the underlying theme that develops because of the types of topics that are included.
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