It goes “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” How does that work in practice?
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A real world example would likely be checkout times for cashiers and fast food and the like.
A good while back, someone realized that Good cashiers were generally quick. They were efficient and and got things done quickly because they were good at their job. So the Measure of a good Cashier could be how fast they can get people checked out correctly.
So… Someone decided it would be a good idea to grade cashiers on how quickly they got stuff done, as a way to reward good cashiers and indirectly punish ‘bad’ cashiers. The Measure became a Target if you wanted to get promoted or get decent raises.
The issue quickly became that cashiers would work to meet that target, and would leave other important tasks to the side, because they feared being punished if they took to long to get someone out of their lane, and would become unnecessarily stressed when things outside their control cause that metric to suffer, like an older person taking time to pay, or a person who has lost their card, etc. They might rush customers instead of present a good customer experience, or might not take time to scan every item, costing the business money in shrink.
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