Performance targets can be a double-edged sword. When the Blair government introduced performance targets for the public service, it resulted in a mixture of im

Performance targets can be a double-edged sword. When the Blair government introduced performance targets for the public service, it resulted in a mixture of improvement and unintended consequences (ie. gaming of targets). Manipulation of targets in the case of hospitals, from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4721174.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4721174.stm So as Greenspun says, the selection of targets that are difficult to game is pretty important.