They build a "Culture"...
PIP seems to have become a popular tool to the new generation middle managers for the purpose of a "homogeneous team". That is, PIP has become an acceptable and common practice to get rid of the "black horse" employee that is typically high-skilled and highly productive, thus at odds with a team of mostly mediocre members (including the manager) and hard to terminate based on pure work performance.
...of Peter-principled ,Title-IX empowered, ladder climbers who surround themselves with poodles like Ian -- Poodles who will compliantly regurgitate whatever buzzwords and BS are fashionable that week (and vote for the train instead of asking who will pay for it).
Then, as the project is failing, the Alphafem poodle herders will hire a contractor... and have a party to celebrate "their" success.
LOL!