Scientific Definition
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Plain-English Definition
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Feynman Explanation
The metric you optimize is the metric that betrays you.
Core Principle
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Every KPI eventually corrodes if attached to comp without offsetting metrics.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The metric you optimize is the metric that betrays you.
Examples
- Customer service teams optimizing 'time to close ticket' produce un-resolved tickets, fast.
- Every KPI eventually corrodes if attached to comp without offsetting metrics.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Pair every metric with a counter-metric. Rotate KPIs. Audit gamification.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Pair every metric with a counter-metric. Rotate KPIs. Audit gamification.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Once-a-year feedback rewards once-a-year behavior.
The more a quantitative indicator drives decisions, the more it distorts the process it measures.
Donors penalize 'overhead'; charities under-invest in capacity.
Donors penalize 'overhead' and starve capacity that produces outcomes.
A reward designed to reduce X produces more X.
Squeezing all slack from a system optimizes throughput but eliminates resilience.
'Equal value' exchanges incentivize subjective appraisal gaming to trade low-utility land for high-value public assets.
Deep specialization improves local output but breaks cross-domain understanding.
Greedy improvement loops climb hills that aren't the highest hill.
When rewards don't match stated values, culture quietly decays toward what is rewarded.
Insulation from risk changes the risks people take.
Systems with weak corrective feedback drift unchecked into failure modes.