Working with teams is always an experiment. Some members respond well to the carrot, while others require a more direct approach to achieve a similar desired outcome. Over time, it becomes clear that monitoring progress and sharing results is crucial for everyone to ensure their goals are well-defined and their progress is on track.
A colleague once shared the story of the first mission to the moon. (I am not convinced it was accurate, but the concept still holds). The path was made of continuous adjustments with the mission at some points being as much as four degrees off course. Through solid, careful adjustments, they were able to achieve their goal of getting to the moon and back! Anecdotally, had they remained that 4 degrees off the entire mission from launch at Cape Canaveral, by the time they reached the necessary distance to get to the moon, they would have missed it by about 16,700 miles.
It’s easy to get excited when a number moves in the right direction. Maybe your slip occupancy finally hit the target you set at the start of the season, or your fuel sales chart shows a strong upward climb. Those are moments worth noting, but they can also be the times when you need to slow down and ask a more intuitive question: is this improvement telling me the whole story, or are we just hitting the number without really improving the operation?
KPIs are a valuable tool. I’ve written before about their importance and how they help keep teams aligned and informed. They create focus, turn goals into something measurable, and give everyone a clear sense of progress. But they’re not immune to being misunderstood or misused. There’s a concept in management called Goodhart’s Law, summed up in a sentence: “When a measure becomes the goal, it can stop being a good measure.” You don’t need the theory to see how this plays out in the real world. When a team focuses on managing the number rather than the work that drives it, you get short-term wins that can mask long-term issues.
The reason KPIs have such staying power in business is simple: they work. In marina operations, they can track everything from slip occupancy and fuel sales to transient traffic, maintenance turnaround times, retail performance, and seasonal renewals. The right KPI can tell you if a program is moving in the right direction, if a staffing change is improving response times, or if an event is driving actual sales instead of just foot traffic.
The challenge is that the very act of measuring something changes behavior. When everyone knows the occupancy target for the season is 95%, the focus shifts to hitting that number. That’s good if it encourages better marketing or faster follow-up with leads. It’s not so good if it leads to overbooking, short-term discounts that hurt margins, or a churn of customers who don’t return the following year.
You’ve probably seen versions of this in your own operation. Let’s say you want to boost fuel sales. The KPI is straightforward: increase gallons sold by a set percentage compared to last year. The team starts offering deep discounts to transients and even nearby non-customers. On paper, sales are up. But margins are down, regular customers are now waiting longer for service, and the net result for the season is a smaller profit on fuel than before. The measure was achieved, but the actual health of the business didn’t improve.
Outside the marina world, it’s the same story. Sales teams that rely heavily on quarterly quotas often fill orders with quick wins that fail to build long-term relationships. Maintenance departments trying to hit a “tickets closed” number might close issues before they’re fully resolved. In each case, the goal of the measure has taken priority over the reason for measuring it in the first place.
The warning signs aren’t always obvious. Sometimes it’s a short-term spike followed by a sharp drop-off. Other times, it’s improvement in one area at the expense of another. If you notice staff spending more time talking about the number than the work that creates the number, that’s another red flag.
A marina-specific example: to hit transient slip targets, the team overbooks during a busy weekend. They meet the occupancy goal, but guests end up rafting boats together, dealing with delays, or struggling to find space. The experience suffers, and those same guests choose a different stop next year. The KPI says “success”, the customer feedback says otherwise.
The best way to avoid this problem is to design KPIs that are harder to game and more balanced in what they measure. If occupancy is your KPI, pair it with retention rate and guest satisfaction. If fuel sales are your target, track margin and repeat business alongside total gallons. This way, hitting one number without supporting the others isn’t seen as a success.
Another helpful approach is to combine quantitative targets with qualitative reviews. It’s one thing to hit a turnaround time on maintenance, but was the work done right? Did it stay fixed? Did the customer feel it was handled professionally? Those aren’t questions a single number can answer.
Involving your team in setting and refining KPIs is also critical. The people who work the docks, run the fuel pumps, or manage the maintenance schedules know where the pressure points are. They can often tell you how a KPI might be misunderstood or where it could encourage the wrong behavior. When they help design the measure, they’re more likely to respect its purpose.
The healthiest mindset is to treat KPIs as opportunities to check in, not as your finish lines. They’re there to tell you how you’re doing, not to define success on their own. A KPI is most valuable when it sparks a conversation: “We hit this target, but what’s behind it? What worked? What didn’t?”
If fuel sales are up, ask how many of those sales came from repeat customers. If occupancy is strong, check whether your highest-value slips are full or if the gains came from lower-value spaces. If maintenance turnaround times improved, confirm that the work quality stayed consistent.
This way, KPIs keep you looking at the whole picture. They remain tools for decision-making rather than trophies to be put on the shelf.
KPIs are still one of the best tools for running an operation, but like any tool, they need to be used with skill. Goodhart’s Law is a reminder that the number itself isn’t the goal — the goal is improving the work that drives the number.
To keep KPIs from losing their value:
- Pair each primary KPI with a balancing measure.
- Mix quantitative targets with qualitative checks.
- Involve staff in the design and review process.
- Treat results as a starting point for questions, not the final word.
- Review and adjust measures as conditions change.
It’s worth celebrating when the numbers move in your favor. Just make sure you understand why they moved. A strong KPI program keeps your team focused on progress without losing sight of the bigger picture. The most successful operations manage both the numbers and the work behind them, and when you get that balance right, the results are more than just a line on a report.
Written by J Jeremy Parks