Goodhart’s Law

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A modern fable in verse. Wise Monkey Wrought scroll N.021, "Goodhart's Law." Goodhart observed that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. The call centre timed every call, and three minutes was the target. A customer rang about a broken boiler. A screen hung up above the floor. It timed each call, and nothing more. Three minutes kept a call in green. The boiler was not on the screen. The call was ended, short and quick, at two fifty nine, right on the tick. The board went green. The fault remained. The average was well maintained. The customer rang back each day. Each call was short, and logged that way. By March, eleven calls were green, the best results the board had seen. The engineer has not been sent. Three minutes is how each call went. The boiler still does not run hot. The board is green. The house is not. Eleven calls, all inside three minutes. A short answer fixes nothing quickly.