Our team has figured out how to hit their weekly targets by pushing work into future weeks, essentially gaming the timing of our scorecard. How do we structure our metrics to prevent this timing manipulation?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When team members figure out how to hit their weekly numbers by simply sandbagging or shifting their work to suit the calendar, your data component is compromised. This timing game usually looks like a team member holding back completed files or delaying customer follow ups just to guarantee they hit next week's goal. They are prioritizing their personal scorecard green status over the natural flow of your business.

To stop this, you need to look at the relationship between your metrics. A single metric is easy to game, but paired metrics are almost impossible to manipulate. If you track files processed, you must pair it with a metric for average processing time or backlog age. If a team member tries to hold files back, their backlog age metric will turn red.

You also need to address this behavior in your weekly Level 10 Meeting. When you spot a pattern of a metric hitting the exact target number every single week with zero variance, drop it down to the IDS portion of your agenda. Ask the seat owner to explain the workflow. Make it clear that the scorecard is designed to show the true, raw pulse of the business, not to act as a gold star chart. If they are holding back operational velocity just to protect their personal stats, they are failing the GWC of their seat. They do not get the accountability required for an owner looking to scale or exit. Redesign the metrics to measure the throughput velocity alongside the volume to keep everyone honest.