> That division can also then be used to narrow what you're willing to accept (for good or ill) of people in meeting those goals, but the challenge is that they tend to see meeting all the goals as the goal, not acting in a moral way, because the goals become the target, and decontextualise the importance of everything else.

I would imagine that your "more lines" approach does manage to select for those who meet targets for the right reasons over those who decontextualise everything and "just" meet the targets? The people in the latter camp would be inclined to (try to) move goalposts once they've established themselves - made harder by having the conflicting success criteria with the narrow runway to success.

In other words, good ideas and thanks for the reply (length is no problem!). I do however think that this is all idealised and not happening enough in the real world - much agreed re: psychopathy etc.

If you wouldn't mind running some training courses in a few key megacorporations, that might make a really big difference to the world!

You're not wrong strictly speaking - the challenge comes in getting KPIs for ethical and moral behaviour to be things that the company signs up for. Some are geared that way inherently (Patagonia is the cliché example), but most aren't.

People will always find other goalposts to move. The trick is making sure the KPIs you set define the goalposts you care about staying in place.

Side note: Jordan Peterson is pretty much an example of inventing goalposts to move. Everything he argues about is about setting a goalpost, and then inventing others to move around to avoid being pinned down. Motte-and-bailey fallacy happens with KPIs as much as it does with debates.