The KPI Trap: When Measuring Performance Hurts Decisions

Executive dashboards don’t fail because of bad data or weak tools — they fail because of hidden measurement traps that distort decision-making. In this session, we explore how technically “correct” KPIs can still drive the wrong behaviors and outcomes through issues like: Aggregation illusions Metric surrogation Local optimization Short-term bias Drawing from real consulting experience and concepts from behavioral economics, systems thinking, and management science, the focus shifts from dashboard features to something more important: how metrics shape executive behavior, incentives, and…