Overcoming Barriers to Auditing Organizational Strategy

While I was thrilled about the high-profile assignment, I was completely unsure how to begin. How do you audit something as broad and high stakes as an organization’s strategy? What if we uncovered a major flaw — would leadership scrap the entire plan? And how could internal audit challenge senior management’s vision without damaging relationships?

Then there was the big question: After more than a decade in the profession, why was this the first time I had ever audited organizational strategy?

That experience became the foundation for my article “Playing the Long Game” in the August 2025 issue of Internal Auditor. For those of you who, like me, live in a TL;DR (Too long; didn’t read) world of never-ending projects, work-life demands, and otherwise general chaos, I want to share some of the highlights of that article here, including real obstacles that still keep many audit teams from tackling strategy audits — and why pushing past them is one of the most valuable things we can do for our organizations.

The Major Roadblocks

Let’s be honest; most internal audit teams steer clear of strategy audits, and it’s not hard to see why. The barriers are equal parts practical, cultural, and downright intimidating. They include:

Intuition-Driven Leadership. While not a universal truth, many leaders treat strategy like an art form rather than a science. In my very first strategy audit, I sat down with the CEO and asked how he built the company’s plan. He shrugged and said, “I have no idea — it’s a gut feeling.” He leaned on decades of industry experience, a tight circle of trusted advisors, and pure instinct to steer billions in revenue and expenses. That approach had worked for him, but it left me wondering how on earth I was supposed to audit a “hunch.” While many organizations use a very robust, data-driven process to set strategy, plenty of executives still operate this way, which makes the whole audit exercise feel impossible to pin down with our usual structured tools.

Board Dynamics. Strategy discussions often happen in delicate board-management territory. Board members might push back hard in private sessions, but the official minutes show smiling agreement. As auditors, we risk stepping on toes when we start asking whether every voice was truly heard or whether groupthink quietly won the day. Questioning the very vision that leadership has bet the company on? That’s sensitive territory.

Evolving Strategic Risks. Strategic risks don’t sit still. Cybersecurity, digital transformation, geopolitical shocks, ESG pressures, and disruptive tech — and many other factors — all move at warp speed. By the time we finish a traditional risk assessment, the landscape has already shifted. Many teams worry they don’t have the specialized knowledge to challenge market projections, scenario models, or competitive assumptions. So, we fall back on the familiar — operational, financial, and compliance audits — even though the data shows strategic risks cause the biggest losses.

These aren’t minor hurdles. PwC’s 2023 Global Internal Audit Study nailed it: Sixty-eight percent of leaders want our input on strategy, yet only 34% of audit effort actually goes there.

Why Strategy Audits Are Always Worth the Effort

Here’s the good news (and the part worth scrolling for): Auditing strategy is one of the highest-value things we can do as internal auditors. When we get it right, we help make sure the organization’s big-picture plans are grounded in reality instead of wishful thinking or gut instinct. We strengthen governance, improve cross-functional alignment, and finally earn that “strategic partner” seat at the table that we all talk about.

The best part? It doesn’t have to be one massive, scary project that swallows your entire audit plan. As I laid out in the article, the smartest approach is “one bite at a time.” Use your risk assessment to break strategy down into digestible pieces — risk appetite, stakeholder engagement, organizational alignment, scenario planning, success metrics, and more —then spread those audits across multiple projects over a year or longer. It fits the way we already work and with limited resources and giant mandates.

The payoff is real. Organizations that get strong oversight on strategy are more resilient, more competitive, and far better prepared for whatever curveball comes next. And we, as auditors, finally get to show we can add value at the highest level of the business.

A Quick Anecdote from the Frontlines

During that first strategy audit, the CEO and I literally stared at each other across the table — him the visionary strategist, me the data-driven auditor — both feeling a little out of our depth. But once we zeroed in on the concrete, metrics-driven stuff (how the board reviews the strategy, how well it’s communicated, KPI definitions, reporting cadence, and what actually happens when metrics miss), we built a practical plan together. What started as an intimidating request turned into a genuine collaboration that validated the strategy while spotting real opportunities for improvement. Lesson learned: Even in gut-feeling cultures, auditors can succeed by meeting leaders where they are.

Catch Me at the RISE Conference

If any of this resonates and you want the full playbook — practical techniques, more real-world examples, and the exact risk-assessment framework from the article — I’ll be going much deeper at the upcoming RISE Virtual Conference during my presentation, “Playing the Long Game: Practical Approaches to Auditing Organizational Strategy.” Come say hello, and we can talk through how to make this work in your own shop.

In the meantime, grab the full article “Playing the Long Game” in the August 2025 issue of Internal Auditor. It includes the detailed attributes and metrics-driven approach any team can adapt, no matter the industry or maturity level.

Auditing organizational strategy isn’t easy — but it’s absolutely worth it. By tackling the barriers head-on, we help our organizations play the long game successfully and finally elevate internal audit’s role in the process.