Other Articles

Articles outside Excellence Magazine

Quality and Competitiveness in the Canadian Economy: Invitation for senior managers to complete an important survey
The success of Canadian industry in competing in the global economy has continuously declined for at least the past 5 years. The National Quality Institute, in cooperation with researchers at the University of Guelph, is trying to gain reliable information as to the causes and potential cures for this economic ailment. The best sources for such information are the senior managers of those companies likely to be affected by these market forces – and that means you!
>>>more

Region of Peel first government body to earn top NQI award
A commitment to being on top of its game has landed Peel Region the National Quality Institute's highest honour, making it the first government body in Canada to receive this designation.
>>>Article

Vincent Massey wins education excellence award
'The staff, the administration, the parents are all 100 per cent committed people'
>>>Article

View from the C-Suite: Interview with Nancy MacCready-Williams, CEO at WCB Nova Scotia
Canadian Execs Speak Out On Organizational Excellence. Interview with Nancy MacCready-Williams.
>>>Article

How's the new Job? A big Challenge. Interview with Larry O'Brien, Mayor of Ottawa
An interview by the Ottawa Citizen with Larry O’Brien, the new Mayor of Ottawa. "NQI PEP is part of the plan. I will work quickly with staff at all levels of our city to foster a “ culture of excellence” at City Hall through initiatives such as the National Quality Institute Progressive Excellence Program ( NQIPEP). Integrating NQI- PEP with existing embryonic quality- improvement efforts at City Hall will result in better and longer- term corporate planning, processes that focus on outcomes as opposed to more processes, better employee satisfaction and most importantly, a citizen- focused, citizens- first dynamic that will transcend every program and service delivered by the city."
>>>Article

View from the C-Suite: Interview with Randy Diehl, CAO for City of Kamloops
Mr. Randy Diehl, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the City of Kamloops, is interviewed by Allan Ebedes, CEO of the National Quality Institute.
>>>Article

Civic workers celebrate Kamloops’ award of excellence
KAMLOOPS-CUPE municipal workers in this Interior city have a lot to be proud of as Kamloops has been awarded the prestigious Silver Canada Award of Excellence (CAE)
>>>Article

View from the C-Suite: Interview with Kevin Dougherty, President, Sun Life Financial Canada
Canadian Execs Speak Out On Organizational Excellence. Interview with Kevin Dougherty, President, Sun Life Financial Canada
>>>Article

Background on the Small Business Management Certificate Program
Small and medium sized firms create essentially all the new jobs in the economy based on government statistics for the 10 year period 1993 to 2003 when over a million jobs were created. The issue is how we are going to enjoy this ...
>>>more

Peel Region First Government to Earn Canada Award for Excellence
The Region of Peel has become the first government in Canada to earn the National Quality Institute’s (NQI) prestigious public sector Canada Awards for Excellence (CAE) Gold Trophy.
>>>Article

Canada’s Healthy Workplace Week 2006 – Make a Difference in Your Workplace!
The 2006 Canada's Healthy Workplace Week runs from October 23 to 29.
>>>more

Organizational Quality & Wellness Focus
The evolution of quality and healthy workplace systems has moved from an operational focus, for example on safety...
>>>Article

Ask the Expert: Unconvinced Colleagues (members only)
How do I deal with colleagues who don’t think we have time to worry about quality management?
>>>Members Ask the Expert

Corporate games
The onward march of technology continues to invade every aspect of life and every facet of business, including assessing. This article explores how videogames, once the bastion of teenage distraction, are now being used to add value to assessor training
>>>Article

Ask the Expert: Putting together an NQI PEP submission (members only)
What is the best way for me to put together my NQI PEP submission?
>>>Members Ask the Expert

Ask the Expert: Quality and Healthy Workplace Overlap (members only)
In which way does quality overlap with healthy workplace issues?
>>>Members Ask the Expert

Quality and healthy workplaces: HR must play a critical role
Enlightened organizations know that fostering a quality and healthy workplace environment helps to retain the brightest and the best employees...
>>>article

2006 Business and Economic Plan for Mental Health and Productivity
An agenda for progress. Reducing the social and economic burden of mental disabilities in the workplace.
>>>more

2006 GTA Member Networking Presentation Downloads (Members-Only)
PDF downloads of the Member Networking session on March 17, 2006. Exclusive for NQI Members.
>>>more

Ask the Expert: Key Processes(members only)
What is a good way for us to identify our key processes?
>>>Members Ask the Expert

Ask the Expert: Leadership buy-in (members only)
I am trying to get our Leadership team interested in moving forward with NQI-PEP; what is a good way to get buy-in?
>>>Members Ask the Expert

Impressive Stock Performance of CAE winners from 1990-2005
Investors pay attention! Including the 2005 winners, the CAE award winning organizations outperform popular composite indices by as much as 2.17:1.
>>>Article

Quality – The Key To Organizational Prosperity
Did the push for ISO certification really improve organizational performance and productivity? What do middle managers really believe about quality systems?
>>>article

Knowledge Management and Quality – An Integrating Strategy
Much like quality management, KM is not a project or program to be implemented but an ongoing journey in pursuit of excellence in productivity and performance.
>>>more

Integrated Excellence Criteria for Healthcare is being launched June 2005
NQI Organizational Quality and Wellness Criteria – Health Care Sector. Taken from a speech at the Unleashing Innovation in Health Systems - Alberta’s Symposium on Health - on May 4. 2005 by John Perry.
>>>more

East Coast Excellence: Halifax Tour de Force
Big success on the east coast with the Halifax Tour de Force. Visits to both Delta Hotels and DND Formation Construction Engineering were very informative.
>>>more

Excellence through quality
Legislative changes and governance issues are driving many organizational agendas today. However, any management team that hopes to make its organization do more than simply meet the requirements of market watchers have to maintain a broader focus.
>>>article

The Excellence Factor
Today organizations of all shapes and sizes, and from all sectors, regard excellence as a key business driver. What does excellence look like in practice? How do you achieve results? Read on for inspiring case studies…
>>>article

Mirror Image: Employee Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction (members only)
Mirror Mirror on the wall, who has the best customer satisfaction of them all? The one with the highest employee satisfaction is all.
>>>Members Only Article

Gold, Silver, Bronze: Reaching Organizational Excellence
Last month the best of the best competed on the international stage of athletic excellence. Each athlete hoping to represent their country on the podium as the best in the world. The results for Canada were 3 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals, finishing 19th overall in the medal rankings. Was this enough for Canada? Was this enough for Canadians? Does recognition matter to Canadians? Based on the endless news reports and articles written on what went wrong, we can say that it does.
>>>Article

Capsule Summary of NQI: Who We Are and What We Do
NQI an independent, not-for-profit organization is the leading authority in Canada on workplace excellence based on quality systems and healthy workplace criteria. NQI acts as a national partner with many organizations to advance the Excellence movement in Canada.
>>>more

Healthy Workplace Week - Frequently Asked Questions
What is Canada's Healthy Workplace Week (CHWW)? www.healthyworkplaceweek.ca
>>>Article

Excellence in Canada . . . Sustaining Our Place in the World
Cameron Hyde (NQI Chairman) invites you to join him along with the NQI Board of Governors and leaders from innovative organizations to celebrate achievements in Excellence on October 19, 2004 at the NQI Excellence Summit and CAE award Gala.
>>>more

CAE Winning Companies Stock Prices 'Beat the Street' Again!
In the second study of its kind in Canada the results still sing the same tune. Including the 2003 winners, the CAE award winning Organizations still outperform the TSX 300 Index 2.75:1.
>>>Article

The journey to Canada’s Awards for Excellence: Linkage between NQI PEP & CAE
Organizations can take two routes to achieve a CAE Award.
>>>Article

Healthy ideas
B.C. Hydro and Dofasco keeping fit
>>>article

Vincent Massey School receives PEP Level 2
Vincent Massey School receives Blue Leaf Certification under the NQI Canadian Excellence in Education Program (NQI CEEP)
>>>more

Excellence Summit Photo Gallery & Audio CD's
On October 29, 2003 NQI Celebrated Canada Excellence. Thanks to all those who attended. Excellence summit photo gallery and break out session audio CD's available.
>>>more

Canada’s Healthy Workplace Week: Employee Well-Being Pays Off!
National Healthy Workplace Week. What’s that? You’ve never heard of it? Don't sweat it. Workplace health has often been looked at narrowly, giving it a fairly low profile. But maybe not for much longer.
>>>Article

Tour de Force - Search for the Canadian Idol
This past May NQI embarked on a tour to see the ultimate of Canadian Idol’s. The word idol is defined as: That on which the affections are strongly set; an object of passionate devotion; a person or thing greatly loved or adored.
>>>Article

NQI Base Line Review - Introduction & Overview
Completing a full comprehensive Framework assessment can cause a good deal of frustration. What organizations need is a reasonable sense of current state, something that ...
>>>Article

The Treasury Board Secretariat “Management Accountability Framework” and NQI's “Progressive Excellence Program”
NQI supports this development, as NQI’s Progressive Excellence Program is a complementary program to assist senior leaders in the implementation of ...
>>>Article

Comparison of the Canadian and US Frameworks for Business Excellence
By:John Perry, In regards to the Canadian and US models, the differences, small as they are, reflect the fact that Canada has a ...
>>>more

What impact does customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction have on the planning process for guiding your organizations Excellence journey?
Find out what we have learned about the predicative capabilities of the American Customer Satisfaction Index and the Service Profit Chain.
>>>Article

Highlights of Canada Post's Excellence Journey
Highlights of Canada Post's Excellence Journey (from André Ouellet's speech on April 24, 2003, Montreal)
>>>more

An Unhealthy Workplace can be Bad for You
Workplace stress at certain levels and of certain kinds poses a clear risk to mental health and physical safety.
>>>ARTICLE

Why Focus on a Healthy Workplace? Building the Case for Healthy Workplace
The pursuit of a healthy workplace is very much about achieving excellence and with excellence comes high performance.
>>>ARTICLE

Canada Post Charting the course to a Healthy Workplace
Remember decades ago when canadians were promised more leisure time, more control over work and a better balance between work and home life?
>>>more

A progressive journey to excellence.
The PEP criteria and program is the implementation process for strategic quality improvement for both the public and the private sectors.
>>>ARTICLE

Healthy Wealthy and Wise
Have a peek inside Amex Canada’s headquarters in Markham, Ontario and you’ll see all the things people normally associate with the term "healthy workplace". There’s a subsidized fitness centre. On-site massage and physiotherapy services. Regular seminars on health, fitness and wellness. A cafeteria that stocks all kinds of healthy foods. Healthy, right? Sure, if a healthy workplace was just about wholesome foods and regular exercise. But at a time when high levels of stress and low levels of morale aren’t hard to find, the definition of "healthy" has started to shift.
>>>more

PEP in the City - Part 2
City of Saint John - Our PEP Level 1 Certification "Experience"
Our PEP Level 1 Certification "Experience"
>>>ARTICLE

NQI commentary on the results of a Survey on Service Quality in Canada
Canadians recognize good quality service when they receive it and remain positive about their service quality experience, as approximately 75% rated their overall perception of service quality as either Excellent or Good.
>>>Article

Progressive Excellence Program (PEP) - Frequently Asked Questions
PEP is an implementation roadmap, which takes the full Canada Awards for Excellence Criteria and breaks it down into logical sequential steps that build one upon the other to develop and sustain organizational excellence.
>>>more

Keeping them Satisfied
If you want good service, go to a resort. Don't fly or phone. And let's not talk about Toronto.
>>>ARTICLE

Minister's Message - Speech Delivered at the Canada Awards for Excellence Luncheon
Does quality fit into this innovation agenda? The answer is a resounding yes! Quality must be there. The two must be forever intertwined in every sector.
>>>MESSAGE

West Coast Excellence - Recap of the BC Tour de Force
British Columbia is known for its mild climate and it's beautiful scenery. On October 3rd and 4th at the BC Tour de Force NQI showed that BC should also be known for their excellent examples of business excellence.
>>>ARTICLE

Focus on Excellence = Healthy Stock Price
CAE award winning Organizations Stock Price Outperforms the TSE 300 Index 3:1
>>>ARTICLE

ISO Standard and NQI-PEP Progressive Excellence Criteria: A comparison
For organizations that have achieved ISO9000 registration, participating in the NQI Progressive Excellence Program will enhance their improvement journey.
>>>ARTICLE

The Principles of a Quality Workplace
In the business world, and increasingly in the public sector, we clearly understand today that there is a financial benefit for the implementation of a strategic approach to the management of quality.
>>>ARTICLE

The Leadership Factor: Management practices can make employees sick.
Amex Canada, previous winner of a CAE Quality Award, knows the value of treating people fairly, not only for the health of employees, but for the bottom line. But few companies connect leadership with employee health. That's a big mistake.
>>>ARTICLE

Workplace Wellness: Something’s Happening Here
Do you have a sense that the workplace itself creates stress? Leading Canadian organizations are taking action to alleviate organizational stress at its source.
>>>ARTICLE

A Journey to Remember - Excellence Tour de Force Recap
Armed only with our pens, pencils, and a copy of the ‘Framework for Business Excellence,’ we were ready to hear some incredible stories. The ‘Excellence Tour de Force’ was an opportunity to visit the year 2000 Canada Awards for Excellence winning organizations.
>>>ARTICLE