We noticed that some of our managers have figured out how to hit their weekly scorecard targets by pushing lower-quality work through or manipulating the definition of the metric. How do we identify and audit numbers that our team is gaming to make themselves look good while operational quality drops?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When team members game their weekly scorecard targets, they are usually optimizing for the metric at the expense of your actual business health. This happens when targets are punitive or when a number is tracked in isolation. For example, if your customer support seat is measured solely on ticket resolution speed, they might close out tickets prematurely without fully solving the customer problems, leading to high callback rates. To identify and audit these issues, you must look for decoupling trends. If one scorecard metric is consistently green but another related metric is steadily declining, someone is likely gaming the system. To prevent this, you should always pair your volume or speed metrics with a quality control counterbalance on your scorecard. If you track the volume of sales calls made, you must also track the conversion rate of those calls to qualified opportunities. If you track the speed of operational delivery, you must also track client satisfaction or rework rates. When you spot a metric that is being manipulated, do not attack the person. Use your Level 10 Meeting to IDS the metric itself. Ask if the metric is truly measuring the right activity or if the target is encouraging bad behavior. Re-evaluate the definition of the metric and make it objective. If necessary, change the measurable to something that cannot be easily bypassed, such as tracking completed jobs that pass a quality audit on the first attempt. Your scorecard must drive the right behavior, not just create a clean spreadsheet.