By Mike Scott, Program Director, PASAI
One of the things that I have always enjoyed and admired most about performance audit as a profession is the range of fantastic people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives that it attracts. People with backgrounds in amazing areas such as engineering, nursing, teaching, policing, ancient history and the performing arts!
So, what category would you put yourself in as a performance auditor. Are you a scientist, an artist or the best of both. Well, I’m going to present the case for being the best of both.
First, the scientist’s case
I must start with science as I’m a chemistry graduate and, way back in the day, did post-graduate research burning organic compounds to examine their potential as possible alternatives to hydrocarbon-based fuels, such as petroleum and natural gas.
Also, science has given us many world-changing discoveries such as electricity, gravity, DNA, antibiotics and vaccines, to name but a few.
What I enjoyed about chemistry and chemical research was the methodical approach, precision of gathering scientific evidence and the potential for making a difference through the results that I found. Like science and scientific research, performance audit takes a methodical approach, is evidence-based and makes a difference through what the audit discovers and recommends.
Animated image of a DNA double helix by Zephyris, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Making links between cause and effect are also part of both science and performance audit. While standing in front of my chemical apparatus of glass bulbs and tubes, mercury thermometers and furnace, burning chemicals all day and then putting the gases given off through a spectrometer, I was seeking to understand how the properties of the chemicals that I was burning changed and why. In other ways, performance audits seek to understand why the performance of public services is different to that expected and make recommendations directed at the causes of shortfalls to improve performance.
Careful analysis of evidence and findings, independent quality review of them, and compelling write-up and visual presentation of them in scientific journals, were also important to my scientific research, as these things are in the context of performance audit.
Albeit, perhaps not on a world-changing scale, performance audits also bring benefits to people and can contribute to changing people’s lives for the better. I like to think some of the more memorable audits I have been involved in have done this, such as the ones examining how well the financial affairs of mentally incapacitated people are looked after and how well the police respond to emergency calls.
Portrait of Dora Maar by Pablo Picasso – picture taken at the Musée Picasso, Fair use
Next, the artist’s case
I also enjoyed studying writing and literature at school (non-fiction of course, as there is no place for fiction in performance audit). I could have equally gone down the route of doing an arts degree at university.
Art has also given the world many great wonders. The plays of Shakespeare, poems of Milton, paintings such as the Mona Lisa and sculptures such as The Thinker, to name some of the most famous, and not to mention the many great artistic performances through time.
I enjoyed writing short stories about trips I’d taken, such as to the Roman ruins of Hadrian’s Wall in the Northeast of England where I grew up, describing what I had seen, done and learned. I’ve also always enjoyed looking at paintings. I’ve even tried painting some of my own, a long time ago, and quickly realised I wasn’t a painter. What I enjoy about paintings and pictures is looking at the patterns, flow of the colours and vividness of the scenes.
I think the art in performance audit is about standing back and looking at the big picture, seeing connections between pieces of evidence, adding themes together and weaving them into a coherent story. Don’t underestimate the importance of doing this, and storytelling, to the value and impact of a performance audit. There is a legitimate place for evidence-based artistic creativity in performance audit, in my view.
A great performance audit report grabs the reader’s interest, leads the reader clearly, compellingly and convincingly through the findings and conclusions to the recommendations, showing them a few vivid pictures and graphics that support the story, along the way. It is concise, uses language that requires no interpretation and tells the reader exactly what you mean. Like any great work of non-fiction.
The case for both the scientist and the artist
So, I guess it’s pretty clear by now that I think performance auditors are a grand combination of a scientist and an artist, putting aside my natural science bias. We are methodical, analytical, insightful, creative and engaging all in one.
I’ll leave you with that thought and these images of works by Leonardo da Vinci, the painter of arguably one of the greatest masterpieces of all time and the catalyst for one of the greatest innovations of all time.
Picture of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel taken by Antoine Taveneaux, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Picture of an aerial screw (or helicopter) design from circa 1489 by Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Oh, and for those of you who didn’t read my blog post last June, performance auditors are also firefighters!
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