Absolute fav :)
Best guesses I've got for how to combat the situation: - Have a diversity of metrics that are somewhat independent, somewhat anti-correlated (if I'm using the right words) - Have non-measurable goals that you refer back to
Anyone else got ideas for hedging against the failure mode of Goodhart's Law? :)
I have seen this in a company where they would change employee objectives every year, and also promote and demote people into unexpected new roles. This seemed to result in everyone understanding that next year things can be very different, and does not give people enough time to corrupt a metric. So everyone needs to build good working relations with superiors and subordinates, and not only try to meet objectives but also do well for the company in general, because next year roles can be reversed.
This system is tiring for everyone though...