Calibration Chaos: How to Align on Quality Across Teams

Ever left a calibration session feeling more confused than when you went in?

You’re not alone.

Quality calibration is supposed to bring clarity and consistency, but too often it turns into a tug-of-war between QA and supervisors—or worse, a total waste of time. If that sounds familiar, take heart. In our latest Idea Exchange, Rob Dwyer shared some tactical advice for turning chaotic calibration sessions into culture-building alignment opportunities.

Here’s what we learned.

Specific Is Terrific

Rob said it best: “Specific is terrific.” When your scorecard criteria are vague, everyone starts grading based on gut feel or personal bias — and that’s when things go off the rails.

Avoid this by clearly defining what good, great, and poor performance look like for each line item on your scorecard. Include call snippets, example transcripts, or annotated screenshots. When everyone is working from the same playbook, objectivity becomes easier, and calibration conversations become more productive.

Pro tip: Treat your scorecard like a living document. Review it at least quarterly and revise as needed to reflect changes in goals, channels, or customer expectations.

Set Shared Expectations and Purpose

Before you even hit play on that sample call, pause to align the group. Why are we here? What’s the goal of this calibration session?

Spoiler: It’s not to throw agents under the bus or to point fingers. The goal is to create consistency in how we define quality so that everyone is giving fair, helpful, and actionable feedback.

Establish ground rules. Clarify the tone. And remind everyone that disagreement isn’t a bad thing as long as it moves the team closer to shared understanding.

Build Interdepartmental Trust

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: tension between QA and operations. It’s real. But it doesn’t have to be.

Rob shared that one of the best ways to break down silos is by investing in relationships between QA analysts and supervisors. Start from a place of mutual respect and shared purpose. Supervisors want to see their teams succeed. QA wants to drive better outcomes. You’re on the same team even if your calendars and KPIs don’t always match.

Tip: Rotate facilitation roles. Invite supervisors to lead a calibration session with QA support, or vice versa. Giving both sides a voice can go a long way toward building empathy.

Wrapping Up

Calibration doesn't have to be chaos. When you clarify what "good" looks like, set clear goals for your sessions, and invest in cross-functional trust, you'll find that those heated debates start to cool and your QA program gets stronger because of it.

Next up in the series: we’re diving into self and peer scoring — what works, what doesn’t, and how to introduce these techniques without turning your team into QA adversaries.

Got a strong opinion about calibration? Or a peer scoring success story? Let’s keep the conversation going. Drop me a line or connect with us on LinkedIn.