Campbell’s Law

Imagine that one score determines funding, recognition, evaluation, and possibly someone’s future.

What happens next?

People do not simply work harder. They begin studying the system. They look for shortcuts, loopholes, exclusions, and ways to protect the number.

Campbell’s Law explains why:

The more a metric is used to judge performance, the more likely people are to manipulate it.

The higher the stakes, the greater the pressure to make the data look right, even when the underlying reality has not improved.

This does not mean measurement is useless.

It means leaders must pay attention to the behavior a measure creates, not only the result it reports.

Every scorecard teaches people how to play the game.