SP to RT>>>The Post-Audit Debrief Most Teams Get Wrong
Here’s why most debriefs fail to change the next audit—and how to turn them into real design inputs.
By William Englehaupt
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SP to RT>>>Tactical Empathy and the Auditor’s Greatest Leverage Point
What a former FBI hostage negotiator can teach us about audit conversations that actually move things forward
By William Englehaupt
By the time an auditor walks into a difficult conversation—a pushback on a finding, a tense remediation discussion, a stakeholder who has “been through this before”—most of the outcome has already been shaped by what happened in the first few minutes of listening.
Or the failure to listen.
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Chris Voss spent decades negotiating hostage releases for the FBI. His book, Never Split the Difference, distills that experience into a single governing idea: the fastest way to move any high-stakes conversation forward is to make the other person feel genuinely heard. He calls it tactical empathy—understanding the other person’s perspective well enough that they stop defending their position and start engaging with yours.
SP to RT>>>The Hidden Factory in Accounting: Why Rework Is Quietly Eating Your Capacity
The question firm leaders often ask is simple: Where did the capacity go?
By William Englehaupt
Accounting firms rarely struggle because they lack plans, tools, or capable professionals. Most engagements begin with detailed project plans and clear milestones. Yet despite all of that structure, work still arrives late, review pressure spikes at the end, and teams feel chronically overextended.
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The answer usually isn’t visible on the plan. It sits in what many firms experience but rarely name—the hidden factory.