The Plough Audit: Before you upgrade the farm, you must first inspect the plough.

In agriculture, a farmer who buys new machinery without first assessing their old tools risks repeating the same mistakes — just at a larger, costlier scale. The same principle applies in education, business, governance, and personal growth. An “audit” is the bridge between nostalgia and progress. It’s the process of asking: What do we keep? What do we fix? What do we discard?

The plough audit isn’t about tearing everything down; it’s about understanding your starting point with brutal clarity. It’s a crucial step, a necessary preparation before you can effectively gear up for the wave of mechanisation that AI is bringing.

The Mindset Before the Tool

Before you can effectively audit your work, you must first adopt the right mindset.

1. The Weight of Tradition

In many systems, the plough represents tradition. Some traditions are foundational — values, principles, and tested methods that still produce results. Others are inherited inefficiencies, outdated policies, or comfort-zone habits disguised as “the way we’ve always done it.” If we don’t separate the useful from the obsolete, tradition becomes a weight rather than a guide.

2. The Hidden Costs of Neglect

Old ploughs may still work, but at what cost? In organisations, that “cost” could be slow processes, bloated bureaucracy, or employee burnout. In personal growth, it could be outdated skills, limiting beliefs, or unchallenged assumptions. Auditing means not just checking if something functions, but measuring whether it still serves its intended purpose efficiently and ethically.

3. The Risk of Blind Modernisation

Without a plough audit, modernisation often becomes cosmetic. Schools install smartboards but keep century-old teaching methods. Companies adopt AI tools but keep decision-making locked in hierarchical silos. Governments digitise forms but keep policies rooted in the past. The result? Modern tools are dragging old problems forward. It’s a sleek tractor pulling a rusty plough.

Performing Your Plough Audit: The 5-Step Toolkit

With that mindset in place, you can now begin your hands-on audit. This is your practical toolkit to identify what to automate, what to elevate, and where to focus your energy for the future.

Step 1: List Your Daily Ploughs

List the tasks you perform daily or weekly that are repetitive, rules-based, or data-heavy. These are the “ploughable” tasks. Ask yourself:

• What tasks do I dread?
• What part of my job feels like “busywork”?
• What am I doing the same way I did a year ago?

Step 2: Test for "Ploughability"

Now, score each task based on its potential for automation:

Low Ploughability (Human-Required): Tasks involving deep empathy, strategic judgment, or unstructured creativity.
Medium Ploughability (Human-Assisted): Tasks that can be made more efficient with AI but still require a human touch for oversight or refinement.
High Ploughability (Automate Now): Tasks that are repetitive and predictable are prime candidates for full automation.

Step 3: Identify Your Human Edge

For every task you identified, there is a complementary “human edge”—a skill that becomes more valuable because the machine is handling the grunt work.

For example:

• If you automate reports, your human edge is strategic decision-making.
• If AI drafts your copy, your human edge is your unique voice and narrative judgment.
• If you automate scheduling, your human edge is building deeper client relationships.

Step 4: Create Your Action Plan

Turn your audit into a simple, three-part plan:

1. Automate: Find a tool to handle the tasks in your “High Ploughability” category.
2. Elevate: For tasks in the “Medium Ploughability” zone, focus on the skills you need to become a great “machine collaborator.”
3. Ditch: With new efficiencies, some tasks are simply no longer necessary. Be bold and cut them.

Step 5: The First Micro-Move

• Don't let this audit become another unread to-do list. Take one small, concrete step by the end of this week:
• Try a new tool.
• Watch a 10-minute demo.
• Talk to a colleague who is already using a new tool.

Closing Thought

The plough audit is not an act of criticism; it’s an act of stewardship. It’s about honouring the tools and methods that brought you here, while refusing to let them define your future. Only by knowing the state of your current plough can you truly prepare for mechanisation.

Progress without inspection is planting in shallow soil — it may sprout, but it won’t last. Your first micro-move starts now: inspect, align, and only then, advance.

Next in the series: “Mechanised Learning”— when the plough gives way to precision gears, what harvest will the mind yield?