"Organizations optimize what can be audited, not what matters.
Audits change behavior. When a number can be checked, it becomes safer to optimize for the check than to optimize for the work. The number quietly becomes the definition of good.
This is a predictable adaptation. Teams will shape work to pass reviews, hit throughput targets, or satisfy compliance checklists, even when the metric is a weak proxy for what matters. Over time, the organization gets better at producing evidence than producing outcomes. Once the check is tied to status, careers, or funding, the distortion accelerates.
Make the tradeoff explicit. Decide what the audit protects and what it ignores, then choose a counter-signal that prevents the metric from becoming the whole strategy. Protect that counter-signal the moment the main metric starts looking too good.