The management of the Baldrige Award processes within NIST, including the pilot programs, is carried out under the very same principles espoused by the award criteria. Process improvement cycles have been identified and implemented for each aspect of the program. There is a heavy emphasis on teamwork within the award office and with private sector partners. Rigorous processes have guided the development of award criteria, formation of pilot evaluation teams, development of case studies for education and health care, and networking with educators and health care providers across the country. Initial investigations confirmed the demand for education and guidance in these two sectors and also the need for sector-specific criteria.
Feedback indicates the criteria have made their improvement efforts more systematic.
A primary, long-term consequence is expected to be the ripple effect from the training of evaluators, who are taking their knowledge of the criteria and the Baldrige improvement process back to their local institutions. Response to the pilot programs has greatly exceeded expectations. The number of applications under the health care and education pilots is comparable to the number annually received for the original Baldrige Award for business. Following review by a pilot evaluation team and a consensus review stage, two health care and three education institutions advanced to the site review stage and received significant feedback. In addition, when the Swedish Institute for Quality awarded its first ever quality award to a school, it employed criteria based on Baldrige.