Control Self-Assessment

Control Self-Assessment is a powerful audit and consulting tool that can be organized to protect against Business Risks or used as the central tool in a Business Process Analysis. In this first comprehensive introduction to CSA methodology, Richard Tritter explains how to successfully use CSA sessions to get a realistic look at the machinery of your business with information known to its day-to-day operational staff. He goes on to show you how to use this information to develop an action plan that will be enthusiastically put into practice. Control Self-Assessment is a must for any firm in which CEOs and staff share a common vision built on their collective wisdom. Facilitative Consulting and Control Self-Assessment: AnIntroduction.

Understanding the Basis of Facilitation: Models to Remember.

Definitions and Distinctions.

A Control Self-Assessment Session to Improve BusinessPerformance.

Planning a Control Self-Assessment Session to Assess BusinessRisk.

Importance of Frameworks.

Using Facilitation as a Consulting Sales Tool.

Different Control Self-Assessment Processes, DifferentObjectives.

Necessary Skills, Qualities, and Values of a Facilitator.

Electronic Voting Systems.

Appendices.

Index. Traditional consulting is failing to meet client needs because itoverlooks a key source of information: the client. Tritter'sfacilitative techniques take consulting to the next level,detailing processes for sharing knowledge and gaining agreement.His focus on Control Self-Assessment gives the reader an excellentleverage point for improving business performance. With an emphasison "how-to", this book gives practical techniques for assessing andmanaging business risk.--(Tom McNamee, President, Sales Focus,Inc.)

Control Self-Assessment: A Guide to Facilitation-Based Consultingprovides a comprehensive guide to understanding the processesinvolved in CSA facilitation. Realistic problem-solving examplesguide the novice facilitator through common facilitation pitfallsto enable the planning of a successful meeting. A good referencetool.--(Lynda Sharpe-LeLonde, President, Sharpe Decisions Inc.) RICHARD P. TRITTER is the Director of Regional Business Development at a major software consulting firm in Massachusetts. Previously, he was the Director of Facilitative Consulting and the Director of Business Self-Assessment practice worldwide at a Big Five accounting firm, which involved conducting facilitative meetings with groups of client executives at the vice-presidential level or higher. Regarded as a major authority on CSA technique, Tritter researched and wrote Control Self-Assessment: Experience, Current Thinking, and Best Practices for the Institute of Internal Auditors. For his facilitation work in improving adult-handicapped programs, the author was the cowinner of the Massachusetts Better Government Competition awarded by Governor William Weld in 1991. An outgrowth of the group therapy techniques popularized in the 1960s, the facilitative-based consulting approach brought a group perspective to corporate problem solving. Control Self-Assessment (CSA) epitomizes the best of this business-improvement technique. A comprehensive tool for getting a total overview of the state of a company’s current operational controls, risks, and needs, it outlines a group problem-solving technique that’s more analytic, tightly focused, and less expensive than traditional consulting. Instead of the typical one-on-one interview approach, CSA brings a company’s staff together in face-to-face discussions of ongoing policies and practices, cutting across rank and departmental lines, and allowing for the fair expression of all viewpoints—leading, ultimately, to collective solutions to commonly understood problems. The first comprehensive introduction to the mechanics of the CSA technique, Control Self-Assessment offers CEOs, auditors, and departmental managers specific guidelines (including a 15-section process guide in the Appendix) and advice on gaining a candid, creative companywide meeting of minds. Unlike other forms of consulting that encourage participants to develop an idealized improvement plan set in the future, CSA focuses participants on the present. Using "polite interrogation" to elicit facts on the workings and issues of each department, CSA creates a multilayered, multifunctional took at a company’s real internal operations and processes—as currently seen by both executives and stakeholders. The book’s practical workbook approach allows a facilitator to truly understand the dynamics of CSA and put it to work as an information-gathering tool:

• Different CSA methodologies
• Understanding the core facilitation model
• Choosing the right framework for process analysis
• Creating the session agenda, segmenting the subject matter for discussion, and determining the appropriate questions (with specific examples)
• The role of anonymous voting systems in CSA workshops
• Revealing the "holes" in the organization or process
• Sharing ownership of solutions developed

The book also profiles an ideal CSA facilitator, and describes the attitudes and skills needed (including managing group emotions, managing difficult people, and using humor) to keep a workshop focused, constructive, and under control. It also details how to tailor the core of CSA techniques for assessing and controlling business risk as well as using CSA as a tool in sales consulting (with insight on what sort of facilitation to use). Control Self-Assessment is the essential game plan for organizations in which CEOs and staff are determined to forge a single vision built on collective wisdom. The Consulting Recommendation that All Your Employees will Agree on is Usually the One They Make. Traditional consulting often left the person key to an operations appraisal—the frontline worker—an afterthought. The outside consultant, trained to interview only those in key positions, would develop a corporate picture and plan for improvement that was inevitably judged irrelevant by those forced to implement it. Replacing the selective one-person interview with dynamic, all-inclusive group discussion, facilitative consulting made the forgotten worker a key contributor to the fact-finding process. Control Self-Assessment epitomizes the best of this approach to business process improvement. In this first comprehensive introduction to these methods, Control Self-Assessment explains how to successfully use CSA sessions to get a realistic look at the machinery and muscle of your firm—its day-to-day operations and staff—and develop a plan that will be enthusiastically put into practice. A chapter-by-chapter blueprint to setting up a CSA workshop, the book details everything from meeting mechanics, selecting the right time versus place model to creating the session agenda. Offering a practical profile of an ideal CSA facilitator, the book coaches consultants, auditors, and facilitators on the attitudes and skills needed (including when to use humor and how to manage difficult behavior) to keep a workshop dynamic, constructive, and in focus. It also describes how the core of CSA techniques can be adapted to assess and improve business risk as well as for use in sales seminars. Control Self-Assessment is a must for any firm in which CEOs and staff share a common vision built on their collective wisdom. "Traditional consulting is failing to meet client needs because it overlooks a key source of information: the client. Tritter’s facilitative techniques take consulting to the next level, detailing processes for sharing knowledge and gaining agreement. His focus on Control Self-Assessment gives the reader an excellent leverage point for improving business performance. With an emphasis on ‘how-to,’ this book gives practical techniques for assessing and managing business risk." —Tom Mcnamee, President, Sales Focus, Inc. Designer of Conexus^® Voting Hardware and Software "Control Self-Assessment: A Guide to Facilitation-Based Consulting provides a comprehensive guide to understanding the processes involved in CSA facilitation. Realistic problem-solving examples guide the novice facilitator through common facilitation pitfalls to enable the planning of a successful meeting. A good reference tool." —Lynda Sharpe-Lalonde President, Sharpe Decisions Inc.