南辕北辙 (nán yuán běi zhé): To act in a way that defeats one's purpose [idiom] — Meaning & Stroke Order

His approach is completely counterproductive to the goal and cannot succeed.

You're dieting while also binge eating, which is completely counterproductive.

The strategy aims to promote cooperation, but its exclusive clauses have produced the opposite effect.

The company wants to improve employee efficiency, but adds more meetings, which is completely counterproductive.

Since the goal is to increase transparency, why adopt such counterproductive secrecy measures?

He claimed to simplify the process, but the new regulations are far from counterproductive; instead, they have added unnecessary steps.

The government tries to stimulate the economy by cutting taxes, but simultaneously slashes public spending drastically. Such contradictory policies are unlikely to achieve the desired results.

The intention was to reduce mistakes through severe punishment, but it backfired as employees hid problems for fear of being held responsible.