7 - We Never Violate our Independence

~We Never Violate our Independence~

We will always strive to maintain independence. Independence can be a slippery slope. We must remain objective and remember that It’s never personal. We stick to the facts and we apply our sound judgement based on facts. Since our opinions are based on facts, they only evolve with the introduction (or subtraction) of relevant and tangible facts. We passionately share our facts and associated evidence to support our conclusions and opinion. There are no secrets around our opinion, and how we arrived at it.

Independence is difficult. It’s debatable whether it can ever fully exist without some level of compromise. We’re humans with feelings and emotions, and pressures to deliver our plan and value. We second guess ourselves, we lose confidence. We have pride and it can get in the way of our objectivity. We want all of our work to be delivered on time. We want to like our control owners, and we want them to like us. This makes independence hard, and it’s these nuances that put independence at risk. So we must always remain aware of the nuances that can hinder our objectivity and independence.

Control owners will push back. Almost always they do, particularly on issues positioned to present a high level of risk to the firm’s we protect. They will challenge our thinking, capabilities, skills, and judgement. They will become unresponsive to us. They will escalate to our superiors. They will escalate to their superiors. They will drop names to make us think twice. They will sugarcoat the issue. They will try to make us believe such a risk is not possible here. Then doubts will creep in to our minds and put our independence at risk. Are we wrong? Is this really a big deal? Will we be able to work with these control owners again? Will our management support us? Doubts. Lots of Doubts.

In these moments of doubt, we will remind ourselves of, and maintain our independence. We will remind ourselves of our objectivity, and our reliance on verifiable facts. Verifiable facts. We will share our approach and the facts we uncovered. We will clearly articulate our thinking on risk, impact, and likelihood. We will listen and consider the perspectives of the control owners. We will seek out and consider new facts, and adjust our opinions and conclusions provided they truly change our view on risk. We will work together to build consensus while maintaining our independence, and objectivity. We will never sacrifice the well being of the firm without solid grounding in facts supported by evidence.

Historically, we’ve tended to call these types of audit situations “contentious”, and there has been a tendency to take these situations as personal. We must immediately remove the “personal” element of this concept from our minds, as it will cloud our objectivity. In truth, nothing is personal unless you choose to perceive it that way. There is only disagreement, or misunderstanding on facts about our issue and opinion. Maybe new facts must be considered and verified. Maybe we must re-clarify our position and increase awareness and influence to other management and leaders. Whatever the case, we must remain independent and objective. It’s not personal. We will consider new facts and verify them. We will continue to share how we arrived at our conclusions, with pristine clarity.

We must embrace these debates. These are amazing opportunities. These are situations when more great minds come together to deliberate the right path for the firm. Whenever they occur, we will recognize and get excited about the opportunity, we will embrace it, and execute on it meticulously. We will come to the right conclusion for the firm. We will celebrate the conclusion and the value added to the firm. We will revel in the fact that we remained independent and objective.