You’re in an echo chamber and probably don’t even realize it. In this #JammingwithJason #podcast episode we look into how your echo chambers are probably holding you back in realizing your potential, and how you can break free.

I’m also sharing some thoughts on the recently released 2021 North American Pulse of #InternalAudit report. Take a listen and then read the report for yourself. Choose what to believe and what not to believe. Most importantly, make your own decisions and stop letting other people tell you what to believe and what to do.

True freedom comes when you free your mind.

Listen in at: http://www.jasonmefford.com/jammingwithjason/

Transcript

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Jason Mefford: Welcome to another episode of jamming with Jason hey today, we are going to be talking about getting out of the ECHO chamber.

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Jason Mefford: Because, whether you realize it or not, you’re probably living in an ECHO Chamber, and that can actually have some serious impacts on you.

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Jason Mefford: and your career so today we’re going to jump in and talk about that and i’m also going to share some of my thoughts on the recent 2021 pulse of internal audit survey that just came out so with that let’s cue the episode.

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Jason Mefford: All right, everybody, welcome to today’s episode hey yet today, before I get started, I want to do a shout out to Danny.

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Jason Mefford: who sent in some information she’s been listening to the podcast for quite a while, and I just wanted to share it with you because you know you might feel like she does.

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Jason Mefford: She says, you know we’re led by the chief compliance officer and director of internal audit neither of whom have an audit background or certification.

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Jason Mefford: Your podcast has allowed me to fill the knowledge gaps from working in such an environment.

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Jason Mefford: I wanted to reach out and share my appreciation for the knowledge you’re sharing to help our profession well Danny I want to thank you for actually reaching out.

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Jason Mefford: Because it means a lot when people actually reach out, let me know you’re listening and let me know what you’re liking about the podcast so.

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Jason Mefford: If you are listening regularly a couple things that you can do for me first off make sure you subscribe to the podcast and your favorite podcast APP or that you’re watching it on the website wherever you.

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Jason Mefford: Wherever you choose to go listen like it connect with me on linkedin as well and, just like Danny did, let me know that you’re actually listening to the episodes.

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Jason Mefford: When you send me the connection request, and let me know what you’re enjoying the most so I can keep doing more of that and keep serving you my listeners so with that okay now let’s get into talking about getting out of the ECHO chamber.

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Jason Mefford: Now you might be sitting there thinking Jason I have no idea what you’re talking about I have never heard that term before, so what an ECHO Chamber is is effectively when you are kind of in a bubble.

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Jason Mefford: Where all you can hear and see are the things that are going on right around you.

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Jason Mefford: Now why that can be so difficult or so challenging for you and actually end up hurting you a lot of times is you are only familiar.

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Jason Mefford: With those things right in front of you just those people that you may be interacting with just the certain media that you may be following as well.

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Jason Mefford: And again, you know not to get into things like fake news or other stuff like that, but we’ve seen a lot, where you know when people just focus on getting information from one source.

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Jason Mefford: Sometimes that source is not correct, or they have spun things to make you believe what they want you to believe, and again, you can see how dangerous that can actually be.

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Jason Mefford: So that is an ECHO Chamber now some people also use the term of group think.

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Jason Mefford: You know, again when you’re trying to do things like brainstorming trying to work through decisions, sometimes groups will enter into what is called group thing which is.

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Jason Mefford: Again, everybody in the group just kind of thinks the same way and so because of that they have difficulty.

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Jason Mefford: You know, and actually being innovative or coming up with solutions because everyone in the group thinks the same way Okay, and so that’s how these are actually tied together.

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Jason Mefford: And so, as I, as I mentioned to begin with, you probably don’t even realize it, but I will bet.

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Jason Mefford: That you are like most people and you’re probably living in an ECHO chamber and you’re listening to a lot of group think.

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Jason Mefford: Now that’s fine right if if if everybody and every everything that you’re hearing there happens to be true, but like I said more times than not not everything is true.

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Jason Mefford: And so, again I want you to think about that you know just for a minute right because, again, maybe there’s certain celebrities or other influencers that you like, to listen to.

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Jason Mefford: Are they right all the time, probably not do they always is everything they say something you agree with.

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Jason Mefford: Probably not right and again, even though you might agree 90 or 95% of the time with somebody they can’t be right 100% of the time.

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Jason Mefford: Now i’m not going to be the the pot calling the kettle black either because I will tell you, I am not right all the time.

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Jason Mefford: There are going to be some things that I say that you think Jason you are crazy that is not true Okay, and if that’s the case I respect that right, I don’t expect anyone to just believe what I say.

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Jason Mefford: I say things sometimes to get you to think because I want to knock you out of that group thing or that ECHO Chamber that you happen to be in.

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Jason Mefford: I want to shake you up sometimes and get you to think well now hold it is that right, I want you to go out, I want you to do your own research make up your own decision and have your own opinion about things OK.

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Jason Mefford: Now i’m later on in the episode i’m going to get a little bit more into, as I said, the pulse of internal audit.

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Jason Mefford: Report that just came out, I have my own opinions about that and i’m going to share them with you some of those opinions you might agree with others, you may not.

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Jason Mefford: And so again i’m not trying to tell you to do anything if you like, what i’m saying great, but you should figure it out for yourself as well okay now.

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Jason Mefford: Just to get in and talk a little bit more about group think and being in an ECHO chamber, let me share with you a little bit about my personal story.

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Jason Mefford: And an ECHO Chamber that I was in for a long, long time Okay, so I grew up, I was born in Boise Idaho which is you know it’s a smaller area there’s maybe 500,000 people there now there was maybe 200,000 when I was growing up.

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Jason Mefford: And in that it’s it’s a rather rural area in the United States, it is also very homogenous, meaning that there there wasn’t a lot of diversity there.

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Jason Mefford: You know, again, most of the people were white middle class, in fact I think in my in my high school graduating class bit about 400 500 people in my graduating class.

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Jason Mefford: I think we only had four or five black students in my graduating class so growing up, I was not exposed to a lot of things like you know racial diversity.

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Jason Mefford: I wasn’t aware of that I did not know that because growing up in Boise meant that I was living in an ECHO Chamber when it comes to things like racial diversity.

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Jason Mefford: Now I also was raised mormon so I was born into the church my parents were Mormons and so every Sunday, we would go to church, you know every Wednesday, I would go to youth activities.

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Jason Mefford: And really everything in our family life revolved around the family and around the church so for years and years and years, all I got taught.

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Jason Mefford: Was things that my parents believed things that the church believed OK so again, you can start to see how, as a young person.

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Jason Mefford: I was living in an ECHO Chamber because I was only hearing things from my parents, I was only hearing things from my church leaders okay So what do you think I believed.

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Jason Mefford: I believed what I got told right why because that was the only thing I knew and I didn’t actually question anything OK so again I grew up that way very sheltered in a lot of in a lot of ways now.

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Jason Mefford: As I went off to college I started to broaden and see things differently, but again for part of my adult life, I continue to be mormon.

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Jason Mefford: And carried forward a lot of those things right until I started questioning I started seeing the world differently.

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Jason Mefford: I started having different experiences that opened my eyes to realize that what I had been taught and that ECHO Chamber that I was in.

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Jason Mefford: I didn’t agree with, in fact, there were several different kind of inflection points.

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Jason Mefford: In my adult life, where you know, one after another of these basic beliefs, that I had been taught got chipped away.

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Jason Mefford: I realized I woke up and realized I don’t believe what i’m being taught.

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Jason Mefford: And why don’t I believe it because i’ve done research i’ve traveled the world i’ve talked to lots of other people and I realize that 99% of the world.

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Jason Mefford: did not believe what I was taught Okay, now it doesn’t mean everything I was taught is wrong, but there were certain things that we’re not.

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Jason Mefford: we’re not true, and things that I even deep down, did not believe, but I went along with for a while, because that’s what I was taught.

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Jason Mefford: So i’m going to pause now in that there’s there’s an example of a personal ECHO Chamber that I was living in for a long time.

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Jason Mefford: So the first thing with anything is once you recognize it so again once I recognized, I was living in an ECHO Chamber I chose to get out of it.

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Jason Mefford: I chose to leave the Church, I chose to move away from Boise so that I could start experiencing the world that was outside of the little bubble that I happen to live in.

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Jason Mefford: I started traveling the world and i’ve literally been on six of the seven continents right or I guess No five because if you can’t add Arctic okay five of the seven.

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Jason Mefford: continents and have matt and have friends literally all over the world.

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Jason Mefford: And so, as a result of that, even today, I don’t live in that same ECHO Chamber because I have learned and taught myself to see what is actually going on in the world.

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Jason Mefford: Instead of just being told by people and believing what other people tell me so one of the points for our discussion today.

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Jason Mefford: I don’t want you to believe people just because they happen to be someone in a position of authority.

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Jason Mefford: Research it figure it out yourself if you don’t agree with it then don’t go along with the bullshit that they might be sharing okay.

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Jason Mefford: So that’s, the first thing, and if you’re if you’re recognizing again that you find yourself in that ECHO Chamber it’s time to break out.

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Jason Mefford: Of the bubble Okay, so if you’re recognizing it it’s time to start breaking out now I shared the example of religion in an ECHO Chamber that I was in in my life.

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Jason Mefford: Now many people also are in ECHO chambers professionally and just as much as a religion, some people view certain organizations like the Institute of internal auditors.

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Jason Mefford: As a religion or as a church and they choose to believe and follow all of the dogma and everything that comes out of certain organizations, again, it can be that organization, it could be.

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Jason Mefford: Other organizations as well i’m using this as an example Okay, but what happens is a lot of times you know, again, and if I go back to my experience growing up in the mormon church.

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Jason Mefford: A lot of people, for example, you know, one of those inflection points was a vote on marriage.

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Jason Mefford: That was going on and a lot of people in the church said well how does the church want me to vote.

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Jason Mefford: Seriously, how does the church wants you to vote that’s not how you should vote, you should vote based on your conscious miss okay.

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Jason Mefford: And so, because of that again if you are attaching yourself and living in certain ECHO chambers, you are effectively choosing what that other group or that other person is expecting you to do.

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Jason Mefford: Instead of thinking for yourself Okay, so if you find yourself in that trap stop it stop it stop it.

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Jason Mefford: start thinking for yourself and make your own decisions and your own choices, because life is choice, you have the opportunity to choose.

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Jason Mefford: To believe not believe do or not do whatever you want to do when you take that power and you actually consciously choose to do it so don’t give your power away to other people or to other organizations okay so.

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Jason Mefford: With that, I hope you got that if you didn’t go back and listen and i’m probably going to repeat myself again anyway, but with that I want to kind of switch gears a little bit.

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Jason Mefford: and talk about the pulse of the internal audit report that just came out this last week now Why am I talking about this in this episode with ECHO chamber.

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Jason Mefford: The reason is a lot of people are going to read this report that was developed in an ECHO chamber.

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Jason Mefford: That came out for certain particular reasons and they’re going to believe this they’re going to read this and believe it like the Bible or the Torah or the quran or whatever other holy text.

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Jason Mefford: That people may believe in and what I want you to do is when you read it, when you listen to my opinions about it, I want you to think hmm.

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Jason Mefford: Is that does that make sense, what Jason saying does that make sense when I read that if it does, again I want you to consciously choose to believe it based on your research and what your opinions actually are okay.

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Jason Mefford: before we jump into this, though, you might have heard me say this before you might not have, but let me tell you a couple things about surveys.

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Jason Mefford: And about benchmarking that typically end up hurting people.

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Jason Mefford: Any survey that is done is skewed based on the recipient or based on the people who respond to the survey okay so i’m going to give you an example from politics.

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Jason Mefford: Because I used to be involved in politics back in my earlier days now, if you are running a political campaign and you want to, for example, use.

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Jason Mefford: Certain statistics from a survey in your advertising or your campaigning.

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Jason Mefford: You are going to skew the survey results so, for example, and again this is just generic example nothing, one way or the other about this because i’m not political.

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Jason Mefford: But if if if, for example in the United States Okay, if I am running a democratic campaign, I am going to want to survey people.

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Jason Mefford: In the most liberal democratic heavy areas of the country to be able to get the responses, I want to put into my ad.

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Jason Mefford: You see what i’m saying you see where i’m going here okay same thing if I happen to be a republican.

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Jason Mefford: i’m going to do the same thing i’m going to go to the more conservative more strongly republican areas and i’m going to survey those people.

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Jason Mefford: Why, because I want to say things like 80% of people believe that my candidate is the right choice for the State of Texas for the United States, whatever it is right.

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Jason Mefford: So i’m going to go find people that are going to give me the results I want now, you might not have realized that’s actually what people do.

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Jason Mefford: And in fact it’s done in politics, all the time it’s done in business, all the time as well, to be able to get most of those fancy statistics that you’re actually seeing.

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Jason Mefford: So again, another cautionary tale, if you see certain statistics cry bullshit To begin with, and then calling figure out if it actually makes sense, OK.

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Jason Mefford: So, again that’s how a lot of times the respondents and people actually use those surveys So be careful.

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Jason Mefford: anytime you are looking at surveys to make sure where who are those people that they were actually surveying and does that actually is that actually a good representation for this statistic that they’re trying to spew to me.

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Jason Mefford: Most of them are done for marketing again when you see certain things, especially that come out from professional service firms or other people that are using it for marketing purposes.

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Jason Mefford: there’s probably some spin behind it and so again just be very cautious don’t believe it is scientific proof they’re just trying to use a lot of times those percentages and other things to move you a certain way.

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Jason Mefford: Now some other things in general about surveys about benchmarking about maturity levels and maturity models.

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Jason Mefford: maturity models, most of the time again, are used as a way to sell people services or to get them to do things in a certain way.

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Jason Mefford: So again, be careful of maturity models, the other trap that a lot of people fall into with maturity models is.

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Jason Mefford: They believe they have to be at the top, all the time, so it’s like we’re back in school and Oh, I have to have an A.

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Jason Mefford: When most organizations are fine having a see okay so be be aware of that again if your maturity is not where everybody else says advanced maturity is it doesn’t mean that’s where you need to be okay, I mean take me as an example.

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Jason Mefford: i’m middle aged man, but i’m not that mature in a lot of ways, because I choose not to be mature in some ways okay and that’s all right it’s perfectly fine to be that way.

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Jason Mefford: Now the other thing a lot of times again traps, who will fall in with surveys benchmarking as well is they start comparing themselves to others.

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Jason Mefford: Okay, that is, that is very dangerous when you start to do that because, again, you are not the same as other people who are being surveyed.

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Jason Mefford: and often believing you have to do something different, just because everybody else is doing it may not be the right choice for you Okay, but again, a lot of people get into compare it I compare it itis compare and I just it’s the word that I just made up by the way.

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Jason Mefford: into comparing themselves with other people and then usually what happens more times than not they end up feeling bad about themselves.

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Jason Mefford: Because they’re comparing them to someone else who is in completely different situation than they are so as an example professionally and we’ll get into this a little bit in the report.

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Jason Mefford: don’t try to compare yourself to a an internal audit function in financial services that has 200 people in their department.

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Jason Mefford: Because what they’re doing has absolutely no relevance on what you’re probably doing with a group of maybe five or 10 people okay so don’t.

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Jason Mefford: Try to compare yourself to other people it’s kind of silly to do that in fact it’d be like me, you know, comparing myself to somebody.

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Jason Mefford: You know, like a Steve Jobs or you know Warren Buffett somebody who has billions of dollars and think oh my gosh I don’t have a gulfstream.

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Jason Mefford: jet i’m just a big loser right because I don’t have that well that’s not even fair to compare because it’s two completely different things okay.

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Jason Mefford: So, again, I wanted to preface that a little bit here at the beginning, before I start going through this because, as you’re listening to what i’m saying.

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Jason Mefford: Or if you go and download the report and read through it, I want you to make sure and temper what you what kind of things you would do or how you would feel from reading this as well okay.

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Jason Mefford: So with that now i’m going to jump in and again, these are my opinions in general it’s about a 45 page document and I honestly felt sorry for the trees that I hurt.

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Jason Mefford: By printing this out because this 45 page document could have probably been delivered in about three or four pages, but hey that’s what it is.

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Jason Mefford: Now to start off with I think one of the you know, in the executive summary one of the things that came up is.

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Jason Mefford: summarized as a clear message from this year’s pulse data can be summed up in the maxim we are in the same storm, but not the same boat.

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Jason Mefford: wow no shit Sherlock okay if that’s the whole message behind this report yet don’t even need to read it.

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Jason Mefford: We already know that and, in fact, most of the information that is in this report are things you know already rehashed over and over again.

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Jason Mefford: The same numbers are rehashed over and over again okay now just to set the stage again before we get going.

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Jason Mefford: Remember, I told you, be careful about who is actually responding to know whether or not this is actually real and whether or not it actually applies to you.

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Jason Mefford: So about 50% or a little over 50% of the respondents for this survey came from only three industries, so if you are in financial services.

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Jason Mefford: which was 31% of the respondents Okay, a third of the respondents were financial services, which means, this is a report very much skewed.

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Jason Mefford: To financial service companies, so if you’re not a financial service company realize these results, probably are not reflective of what you are doing, and they shouldn’t be reflective of what you are doing.

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Jason Mefford: The next to highest at 14% manufacturing, the third public administration, so again, those are governments so again the top three over 50% of the groups.

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Jason Mefford: who responded to this are probably in completely different industries and have nothing to do with the kind of business that you are in.

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Jason Mefford: So, because of that temper what you are reading in this because it probably is not reflective of you or your particular industry okay.

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Jason Mefford: So let’s get in here and i’m going to be i’m going to be turning pages here so i’m going to be making a little bit of noise, with the with the microphone as well.

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Jason Mefford: But again, you know the beginning of this talks about Kobe hey guess what folks we knew that covered was impacting us we knew it was going to how is it.

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Jason Mefford: Well, unfortunately, in this report, it doesn’t really talk about anything except budgets and staffing and how organizations were impacted based on covert on those things.

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Jason Mefford: And in fact there’s actually some interesting things that i’ll share with you about that, because things didn’t go the way people thought when it relates to that.

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Jason Mefford: But again, we already knew that right that’s kind of old news as well now one of the things again here from a budget perspective that ended up being kind of interesting is.

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Jason Mefford: There is a play place in here, where people were looking at what really expectations that people had in June of 2020 versus the actual November 2020.

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Jason Mefford: So, again June remember this was when coveted very first kind of come in, everybody was anticipating a certain thing well what actually happened by November.

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Jason Mefford: And in fact right when you look at things like overall internal lot of budget.

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Jason Mefford: 45% of the people thought that their budgets were going to decrease, however, only 36% of people actually had their budget decreased Okay, so we were over We were worried more that they were going to get decreased in fact.

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Jason Mefford: 20% of budgets, during that time got increased.

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Jason Mefford: Okay So what does that tell you, we were worried that the sky is falling we’re not spending any money.

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Jason Mefford: When, at the end of the year 20% of people’s budgets actually increased so if your budget increase spend it go, you know go do what you need to do with it right.

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Jason Mefford: But the whole chicken little the sky is falling, at the beginning of this is not what happened.

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Jason Mefford: In fact, the same thing happened with concerns about internal audit staffing, so how many people I actually have right.

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Jason Mefford: In fact, a lot of people thought that it was going to decrease 27% thought that they were going to have to cut what happened instead 25% of people actually increased their staffing.

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Jason Mefford: OK so again people aren’t losing their jobs over this 25% of the groups are actually increasing their their people now.

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Jason Mefford: Let me just kind of move on, because, again, most of a lot of this is just kind of rehashing rehashing rehashing of those same numbers and those same things over and over again, but what I want to get to is about what they call section for risks and audit plan trends.

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Jason Mefford: Now again there’s some really fancy graphs here.

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Jason Mefford: But what i’m going to tell you is as a result of one of the most unprecedented times in world history that we have had this last year with this global pandemic all of the switching all of the risks things that are going on.

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Jason Mefford: What I will tell you from again, this report is, it appears that everybody’s doing pretty much the same thing they were doing before.

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Jason Mefford: That, my friends, is a problem if you don’t think that the risks for your organization have not changed significantly under this environment that we are in, you are sadly mistaken, in my opinion.

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Jason Mefford: But again, the risks that people are are showing as their quote unquote high risks that they’re focusing on.

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Jason Mefford: Their areas where they are focusing their audit plan on have not changed significantly, in fact, the one that did change his financial reporting.

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Jason Mefford: Efforts went up have is the one that went up, which means again at a time when we should be helping our organizations manage their risk better.

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Jason Mefford: Instead, the profession has moved to more compliance and financial compliance areas and, in my opinion, that is hurting you if you are one of those people that has done that you just.

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Jason Mefford: lowered the relevancy of internal audit in your organization Okay, and again that was probably one of my biggest takeaways from this, and unfortunately it just kind of reiterated to me.

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Jason Mefford: The fact that most people are not actually practicing risk based internal auditing, they are not actually adding a lot of value to the organization.

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Jason Mefford: They continue to stay stuck in compliance activities being told what to do, instead of actually leading.

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Jason Mefford: Developing relationships that are deeper and stronger and actually doing more work that is relevant and value added to the organization now again, as I told you ECHO Chamber that report was filled out by about 600 people.

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Jason Mefford: And those 600 people are very staunch I a members and proponents OK so again that reflects the general.

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Jason Mefford: love the I a group Okay, and I don’t know how how better to say that, but it’s the people who effectively are probably believing or thinking, as I told you before.

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Jason Mefford: they’re in an ECHO Chamber just like I was with religion only their religion, when it comes to the profession is everything that the IIA says now.

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Jason Mefford: I told you before that a lot of times people use this for marketing.

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Jason Mefford: Remember.

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Jason Mefford: The AIA is a business it’s a very large business and i’m just going to leave it at that.

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Jason Mefford: i’m just going to leave it at that do your research find out what you think is going on, but more important right is choose make your own choices on what you believe.

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Jason Mefford: And what you think is best for you for your team and for your organization right auditing standards be damned with that do what is right for you.

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Jason Mefford: Do what is right for your team do what is right for your organization and don’t do things just because other people are telling you that that’s what you should do, or because you read it in some survey or some report that either an individual an organization or a company puts out okay.

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Jason Mefford: So we’ve talked a little bit about ECHO Chamber we’ve talked a little bit about the recent pulse of internal audit document Now I want to wrap up with actually giving you some practical takeaways because, as I told you at the beginning, your life will be significantly constricted.

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Jason Mefford: If you choose to live in ECHO chambers, when you break out of those ECHO chambers and actually see what is really going on in the world and actually choose to do things the way you think they need to be done your life opens up for you dramatically, and you have much more freedom.

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Jason Mefford: And a lot of the stress goes away too okay So how do you get out of the ECHO Chamber because, as I said, leaving you with some practical things.

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Jason Mefford: Because even, as I told you, to begin with, you might have listened to this and thought Jason you’re full of shit well Okay, if you think i’m full of shit fine.

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Jason Mefford: Right, but I want you to think for yourself, and I want you to be able to support and.

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Jason Mefford: Have a reason for why not Jason I don’t like your voice, or I don’t like the hat you wore no tell me why you think what i’m saying is not true.

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Jason Mefford: Why you choose to believe what you choose to believe okay So the first thing is don’t just listen to the people that are right around you.

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Jason Mefford: actually see what others are saying as well now i’m going to give you an analogy for this, and again I told you earlier, I was in politics.

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Jason Mefford: And I would be in committee meetings, and I would come home at the end of the day, and I would watch the news.

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Jason Mefford: And I was in that committee meeting for two hours, I heard everything that went on in that meeting I would come home and watch the news and wonder hmm.

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Jason Mefford: What are they reporting on because I was in that meeting, and that is not what was actually said okay so as an example and analogy.

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Jason Mefford: If you want to know what is actually going on in the world, you should not look at one news source Okay, did you hear that.

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Jason Mefford: If you want to actually know what’s going on, you should not rely on just one news source so, for example, if I wanted to get a better picture of what was really going on in the world.

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Jason Mefford: wouldn’t I probably do something like read the Wall Street Journal listen to CNN listen to the BBC maybe listen to Al Jazeera.

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Jason Mefford: Maybe listen to you know, a Russian news service as well, and the more that I do that and I start to see the different perspectives from different people.

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Jason Mefford: I can then choose and make my own decision based on what i’m seeing different people from different perspectives say okay so that’s your first.

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Jason Mefford: takeaway and again use this in every part of your life okay don’t just blindly rely on what one person tells you go fact check them.

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Jason Mefford: And in and look at other sources as well, to see if it’s corroborating I mean come on folks if you’re trained as an auditor, you should already know this right you don’t just.

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Jason Mefford: pick one form of evidence, you actually look and make sure and validate that that it’s actually true and look at it from different perspectives.

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Jason Mefford: Second, one that you can do right, so the first one don’t just see or believe everything that others are saying, try to find other groups, in addition to those that you’re listening to.

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Jason Mefford: and learn from them as well, and then make your own choice, the second one get into other groups or communities, so that you can see other people’s perspectives.

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Jason Mefford: Okay, so find other groups, where you can actually join and get to know other people and learn other people’s perspectives in those communities as well.

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Jason Mefford: Because I will tell you again that will open your eyes, more than almost anything I told you i’ve traveled the world i’ve met and talk to people from hundreds.

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Jason Mefford: Hundreds of countries there’s only hundreds of countries Okay, I used to kind of keep track of and I can’t remember the totals now but anyway.

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Jason Mefford: sitting down with somebody hearing their perspective, who lives on the other side of the world, and as experienced something much different than you have.

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Jason Mefford: will help you to understand much better than all the things that you can actually read.

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Jason Mefford: So finding those groups finding those communities where you can actually interact with people.

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Jason Mefford: That come from different backgrounds that have different perspectives will help you to get out of that ECHO Chamber because you’re hearing.

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Jason Mefford: Other people’s perspectives you’re hearing other things that are actually going on in the world, and that will make you much more informed.

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Jason Mefford: And then you can choose again to decide, am I going to believe what i’ve been taught and what i’ve been told, or do I choose to believe something else.

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Jason Mefford: that’s my hope for you friends get out of the ECHO chamber, however, you can because, once you break free from your ECHO chambers your life opens up.

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Jason Mefford: Trust me i’ve done this religiously i’ve done this professionally i’ve done this socio economically, a lot of different ways that have opened me up.

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Jason Mefford: and have made me who I am today who can see things differently than most people do because most people are only looking at it from one angle.

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Jason Mefford: The more angles, you can look at the more value you provide and the better leader you actually are in your own life in your personal life and in your career as well, so whatever you do my friends get out of the ECHO chamber.

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Jason Mefford: And i’ll catch you on the next episode of jamming with Jason have a great rest of your week see ya.

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