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Presenting Audit Results Brilliantly through Reports and Briefings

Date(s): Jul 12, 2018
Time: 8:30AM - 5:00PM
Registration Fee: $229.00
Cancellation Date: May 02, 2018
Location: JOHN M. KEEL LEARNING CENTER
City: Austin
Parking Info:

Parking for SAO, Professional Development courses is in Garage B (1511 San Jacinto Blvd.). The Garage signage may read 1511 San Jacinto or Garage B. The elevator in Garage B is not reliable. If you are unable to walk the stairs, please contact the professionaldevelopment@sao.texas.gov for alternate parking arrangements. Handicapped parking is free at the meters around the downtown area.

A course coordinator will Email you a parking permit prior to the course start date. A permit must be displayed or you will be ticketed.


Course Description

For auditors to be successful in your desired outcomes after an audit, you not only need to be able to learn how to present very technical information in an impactful manner in writing, but also manage anxiety, engage the reader, and keep people interested in what you are writing.

Our Presenting Audit Results Brilliantly through Reports intense practicum is designed to teach auditors the latest formats, outlines and visual tools for creating easy to read and digest audit reports and briefing documents.

Note: If you own a laptop or ipad and have your typical audit report, we recommend bringing them to the training event (recommended but not required).

 

Extra: All attendees who attend this course will receive Elizabeth's online version of the Root Cause Mastery Training absolutely free!


Potential CPE Credits: 8.0

Instruction Type: Live
Experience Level:
Category: Auditing

Course Objectives

Part 1:  The Psychology of Writing Audit Findings

 

The goal of Part 1 is to allow the writer to gain understanding of how the human mind reads and absorbs technical (and sometimes very detailed) audit information. In part 1 we discover:

  • What are the most effective audit reports currently in use?
  • Why do they work so well? What makes them different?
  • How to communicate technical audit information when you have technical and non-technical audiences reviewing the report in a way that both audiences understand.
  • How skilled audit writers learn their trade-by imitating and adapting good models of expression and how to choose and employ such models.

 

Part 2: Building Powerful Audit Reports & Briefings

 

Audit reports are a document that few people look forward to writing, reading, or reviewing. Part of the issue lies in the audit process - how the auditor collects the information and evaluates the results is very different than how the results need to be communicated based on the audience receiving the audit report.

 

This part of the training discusses the use of audience avatars to define the needs of those audiences, where to use graphics and tables, and how to create executive level communication summaries of findings versus the detailed audit reports that will be used by operational personnel responsible for resolving the findings including:

 

  • The perfect executive briefing of written audit findings – does it exist? How should you create it?
  • How and where to use visuals to enhance your presentation of ideas.
  • Why technical audit report writing is really a form of storytelling and experimentation on effectiveness of methods is important.
  • How to design and use graphics and where they are most effective in an audit report.

Part 3: Creating the template

Every organization is unique. Each audit is unique, but there are general rules governing great audit reports that can be applied to every organization.

 

In this section, we will:

  • Take each of the tools and options and build them into a template that will allow attendees to look at their audience, their audit, and craft a powerful report from the audit data.
  • Each attendee will look at their own audit reports and determine where and how they could use what they have learned in the course.
  • Attendees will receive one-on-one coaching from Elizabeth Frisch. In this section participants walk away with confidence and feeling empowered to take what they have learned and apply it as soon as they get back into the ‘real world’ to their audit report writing duties.

Instructors

Elizabeth Frisch

Elizabeth Frisch, Founder and CXO of The Thrival Company is a chemical engineer with over 25 years of experience leading business performance, engineering, organizational development and auditing programs.  She has conducted audits as a Lead Auditor and Audit Manager and been a trainer of auditors and auditing teams for more than a decade.  During her career she has worked with over 50 different industries, all levels of local, state, and federal governments as well as NGOs/NPOs.  She is the published author of Mission to Million$ - Taking Big Ideas and Making Them Reality (Available on Amazon.com). She is nationally recognized for developing a unique and trademarked approach to performance and behavior-based auditing as well as created a unique interviewing method called “The General to Specific Approach to Interviewing Effectively” which she teaches auditors during her training events.

 

Elizabeth has worked for an ISO9000/ISO14000/ISO18000 auditing registrar and in that capacity was responsible for auditing dozens of companies including U.S. military installations, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, power companies and research and development labs. While employed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Elizabeth developed the initial rules implementing their Clean Texas performance-based auditing program and worked extensively with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in aligning the TCEQ program with the EPA’s auditing program. Elizabeth has also developed a culture-change approach to auditing, implementing, and training companies internal audit teams for using audits to drive business performance.  This unique training approach focuses on 1) developing an audit approach that fits how an entity conducts business and aligns with strategic goals, 2) teaching personnel how to audit in a way that changes organizational culture and engages management to support continued high performance, and 3) identifying opportunities and measuring successes of the audit in business terms. 

 

She is a trained facilitator and has facilitated hundreds of retreats, events, training courses and workshops and is a keynote speaker on the topics of leadership, teams, auditing, and business performance.  She frequently works as a high performance executive leadership coach and is often hired to facilitate difficult dynamics and contentious meeting situations.  Her work in the for profit, non-profit, and governmental arenas allows her to bring a broad and unique perspective on how to combine the best practices in each model of business to create organizations that deliver on their vision and mission and have fun doing it!  From the plant floor to the top floor, Elizabeth is just as comfortable in a hard hat and boots as working with boards and C-level management.  In 2014, she was a Top 3 Finalist for the Austin Chamber of Commerce Small Business Leader of the Year out of hundreds of nominations for this award.

 

In her philanthropic pursuits, she is a donor and Development Chair for Impact Austin which is one of the largest women’s collective giving charities in the nation. Impact Austin has funded more than $5MM of projects making a huge impact in her hometown of Austin, Texas. She also works as a Senior Trainer for A Nurtured World, a 501(c)(3) non-profit best known for its 1house at a timeTM program which was awarded best “Learning in Action” in 2010 and “Best Sustainable Future Today” by the Austin Chronicle Best of Austin Awards for renovating low income homes to be utility efficient allowing low income homeowners to keep their homes.

 

Elizabeth jokes she is a ‘recovering engineer’ as she holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and used these skills to become a business performance systems auditor.  Having worked in so many realms, Elizabeth brings an insightful, broad-reaching and often humorous perspective on human nature and behaviors to each group she works with.

Evaluations of Elizabeth’s training to thousands of people across the U.S. has returned a result that 99.9% of them would refer others to her training events and as a consultant for their business performance program challenges!


Additional Information

TAC Rule 523.142(g) requires the CPE Sponsor to monitor individual attendance and assign the correct number of CPE credits. Participants will be asked to document their time of arrival and departure in compliance with this Rule. Additionally, attendance will be monitored throughout the day and CPE certificates will reflect actual attendance of each participant.

If you are making travel plans to come to Austin, we recommend making "refundable" air and hotel reservations or waiting until 14 days before the class to actually book your reservations. Courses are occasionally canceled or rescheduled due to low enrollment. We determine whether a course has enough participants 16 days prior to the course date. If we cancel or reschedule, we will email the participant and his or her billing contact no later than 14 days before the original class date.

The course coordinator will contact you with parking information. Handicapped parking is free at the meters around the downtown area.

Vending machines with Coca-Cola products and various snack items are available. There is also a refrigerator and microwave in our coffee bar area. Feel free to bring in your own drinks and food if you prefer.

You might want to bring a light sweater or jacket, as room temperatures vary.

To see answers to our Frequently Asked Questions, visit http://www.sao.texas.gov/training/faq.html.