Q: 4: Discuss audit activity at all stages to access the business reliability.

Auditing for High Reliability Auditing Techniques The Importance of Audits Mindfully, consciously looking at the organization and its systems is a key part of high reliability. Asking questions and assessing the current state of things helps promote mindfulness, weaken expectations, and expose possible problems.

Readiness Assessments As you begin to consider implementing high reliability principles in your organization, it can be helpful to see where things currently stand. Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe recommend performing an audit for each of the five principles, as well as tendencies towards mindfulness and mindlessness. These audits can then be repeated to evaluate progress towards high reliability and to expose areas that require further work.

Churchill's Four Questions Winston Churchill had a framework of four questions that he asked whenever anything went wrong. This simple structure can also help high reliability organizations look at how negative events unfold, identify missed opportunities, and close gaps for future events. The four questions that Churchill asked were: Why didn't I know? Why didn't my advisors know? Why wasn't I told? Why didn't I ask?