Black River Technical College (BRTC) Executive Director of Paragould Operations Priscilla Stillwell has been named to the Governor’s Quality Award Examiners.
“There are so many companies in Arkansas that make a great quality product, but we sometimes overlook the idea that customer service, production processes, and daily practices are the internal mechanisms that produce the great product. The Governor’s Quality Award application seeks to highlight the internal passion that produces the great product,” said Stillwell. “As an examiner for this award, I have found that companies look within for success, find great strengths, and eliminate potential pitfalls through accessing their processes.”
The Governor’s Quality Award program is administered by the Arkansas Institute for Performance Excellence, an affiliated program of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce. Examiners use the Baldridge excellence framework to evaluate businesses that apply for the Governor’s Quality Award.
Baldrige is a nonprescriptive framework that empowers organizations to reach its goals, improve results, and become more competitive. The Baldridge excellence frameworks looks at an organizations system perspective, visionary leadership, customer-focused excellence, valuing people, agility and resilience, organizational learning, focus on success and innovation, management by fact, societal contributions, ethics and transparency, and delivering value and results.
The award process is organization driven with the organization applying for the award themselves, which drives organizations toward quality principles. Organizations self-assess and carefully review the award-level requirements before deciding at which level to apply. Each level increases the requirements of the applicant to describe systematic processes and results.
In addition to the award recognition, program participants receive an in-depth evaluation and written feedback report that cites strengths and areas for improvement. Only 27 Arkansas organizations have ever received the highest-level.
BRTC was the 2022 recipient of the Governor’s Quality Award for Performance Excellence, and is honored to be the second institution of higher education to receive the award in Arkansas.