I have been in those calibration meetings. When it is a committee separate from the management chain, it can indeed be rule bound and checklist-driven, looking

I have been in those calibration meetings. When it is a committee separate from the management chain, it can indeed be rule bound and checklist-driven, looking for evidence in the packet to justify each criterion in the rubric. With an org-level committee it’s less prominent since most people at the table already know the candidate and their work, but evidence from the packet does help to resolve disputes. For example if someone says, “I don’t think this person was doing X” and we can point to documented examples of X in the packet. Not everyone knows everything you do with all your time; the review cycle is partly a way to get credit for less visible efforts.