Air Force Evaluation System

Today at work we got to talking about how the Air Force evaluation system is inflated and has been since early memory. This inflation impacts so many other processes in the Air Force -- awards, promotions, assignments, etc.
Fundamentally this inflation problem comes down to an integrity issue. True integrity would drive people to evaluate individuals honestly. Not everyone is a Five every year for every assignment. We should expect people to have lower performance as they change jobs or move up in rank until they learn what they are supposed to be doing, but we don't do that. Those that have had high marks in the past tend to keep getting high marks so that we "don't ruin their career." This drives more inflation.
In order to fix this, we need a CSAF to step into every process and force some sanity. He or she needs to say that a medium performer is ok -- this person is potentially in need of leadership to make them better.
I have seen throughout my career people we were "low performers" flourish under the right leadership and right environment. The challenge it to get these people into these positions.
At the end of the conversation, we did come to the conclusion that despite all of these warts the system does pretty well. It promotes those that should be promoted and passes over that shouldn't. There are, of course, exceptions, but only a small percentage. So do we need the kind of drastic measures to fix the system if the end product is just fine? I would say that unless things get much worse, the time and energy as better spent on other areas in the Air Force. Which is another Blog entry waiting to be written.