Goodhart’s Law

Suppose an organization wants better customer service, so it starts measuring how quickly employees end each call.

Call times improve almost immediately.

Customer service may not.

Employees have simply learned that the number matters more than the experience the number was supposed to represent.

That is Goodhart’s Law:

When a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure.

Metrics influence behavior. Once people know which number determines success, they naturally begin working toward that number.

Sometimes that improves the work.

Sometimes it merely improves the appearance of the work.

Measure what matters, but keep checking whether the metric is still telling the truth.

Numbers are helpful.

They are also very trainable.