Meticulous observation, documentation, and continuous improvement.
Leonardo da Vinci was a man obsessed with understanding how things worked. Whether dissecting the human body, sketching the anatomy of a bird’s wing, or designing machines centuries ahead of his time, Leonardo believed that truth was revealed through careful observation, rigorous analysis, and constant refinement.
In many ways, his mindset mirrors that of an ideal internal audit function. Not just a check-the-box compliance exercise, but a disciplined pursuit of truth — carried out through investigation, analysis, and reflection. So what would it look like if Leonardo were leading your internal audit team?
He Would Begin by Observing Without Bias
Leonardo approached every project with fresh eyes. He didn’t accept conventional wisdom — he studied, watched, measured. He believed that to truly understand a subject, you had to engage with it directly and without assumption.
As an auditor, he wouldn’t rely solely on policy documents or pre-existing process maps. He would want to see how things truly worked on the ground: how processes flowed, where controls were bypassed, and what workarounds employees created to make the system function in reality, not theory. Leonardo’s audit fieldwork wouldn’t be passive — it would be immersive.
He once said, “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” Internal audit, in his eyes, would be the antidote — the search for what’s real, not what’s assumed.
He Would Turn Audit Documentation Into a Craft
Leonardo’s notebooks remain a gold standard for documentation — a strange mix of mirror-script musings, stunning anatomical sketches, and complex machine blueprints. He captured not just facts, but insights. He recorded both what he saw and what he wondered.
Applied to audit, his approach would transform how we think about documentation. Workpapers wouldn’t be a compliance formality — they’d be the intellectual foundation of every audit. Reports wouldn’t just summarize findings — they’d convey observations, root causes, and opportunities for improvement with clarity and intention.
He would likely develop structured templates, yes — but also leave room for curiosity and annotation. For Leonardo, recording the process was part of understanding it.
He Would See Internal Audit as a Driver of Innovation
Leonardo was rarely satisfied with the status quo. He questioned, refined, prototyped. In his hands, the internal audit function would not be limited to retrospective assessments. It would be a driver of improvement — a tool not just for control, but for advancement.
Every audit cycle would be seen as a chance to iterate: not only on the business process, but on the audit methodology itself. What did we miss? What could we have asked better? What metrics actually mattered?
Auditors under his leadership would be expected to bring solutions to the table — not just flag risks, but explore what could be done about them. They’d draw lines between seemingly unrelated audit findings, just as Leonardo drew connections between the flight of birds and the design of flying machines.
He Would See the Organization as a System of Systems
Leonardo’s genius lay in his ability to synthesize knowledge across disciplines. Anatomy informed his art. Engineering informed his studies of water. Architecture, mechanics, botany — all blended in his thinking.
An internal audit function under Leonardo would not operate in silos. He would demand a holistic view of the organization: how risk in one department influences performance in another, how processes intersect, and where gaps become visible only when you zoom out.
Audit planning would reflect this — tying engagements to strategic objectives, cross-referencing enterprise risks, and continually asking: What don’t we see when we look at just one piece at a time?
He Would Instill a Culture of Relentless Curiosity
Ultimately, Leonardo would insist that the internal audit team be guided not just by frameworks or checklists, but by curiosity. That they ask “why” not once, but five times. That they challenge their own assumptions and learn from every interaction.
In his view, a good audit might identify gaps in control. A great audit would illuminate the unseen — the procedural drift, the emerging risk, the unspoken challenges.
“Learning never exhausts the mind,” he once wrote. That would be the ethos of internal audit under his leadership: a continuous learning engine for the entire organization.
Modern Audit, Renaissance Mindset
Leonardo da Vinci didn’t just invent things — he imagined what could be better, then worked backward to understand how. That mindset is exactly what the best internal audit functions bring to the table today: thoughtful scrutiny, fearless questioning, and a passion for making the organization stronger.
At Empowered, we believe in enabling that kind of modern audit mindset. Our Internal Audit module is designed to support teams that value precision, transparency, and progress. With tools for documenting, testing, planning, and reporting — all tied to risk and control data — your auditors can spend less time managing spreadsheets and more time thinking like da Vinci.
