Preparing holders for interview week without alarming them
Practical wording for coordination contacts so diagnostic interviews do not feel like personal appraisals.
Holders often hear “audit” and expect blame. For an application audit of budgeting practices, the unit of analysis is the sequence — templates, handoffs, escalations — not an individual’s character.
Useful briefing points:
- Interviews last 45–60 minutes and focus on the last two cycles.
- Working papers beat slide decks; bring a recent pack if allowed.
- Informal workarounds should be named; they are common and often rational.
- Quotes in the report are anonymised by role unless someone asks to be named.
Coordination contacts should avoid promising that “nothing will change.” Remediation may follow. What you can promise is that findings target process design and application gaps, with evidence attached.