The Periodic Table of Better Internal Auditing

Phronesium: The Missing Element

Every science has its elements.

Chemistry has hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon.

Internal auditing has something different.

It has principles.

The Global Internal Audit Standards are built on 15 principles across five domains. Together, they define what effective internal auditing looks like. Each principle is supported by detailed standards, creating a common language for the profession.

This illustration is my attempt to see those principles differently.

Not as another framework.

But as the building blocks of good judgement.

That is the idea behind Phronesium.

The name comes from Aristotle's phronesis—practical wisdom—and ends in -ium, like an element from the periodic table.

It is an imaginary element.

Not an element of matter.

An element of better decisions.

Every audit report, every assurance opinion, every recommendation and every conversation ultimately depends on judgement.

Processes matter.

Controls matter.

Technology matters.

But without sound judgement, none of them creates lasting value.