Central to the success of QStP is the real partnership between labor and management to improve service delivery, says OCSEA's Goldberg. QStP evolved from an earlier Total Quality Management Program after Governor George Voinovich was persuaded that the real key to quality improvement was cooperation with the state's five unions.

Today, Voinovich does not try to sell QStP as "a way to do more with less." In fact, contract language has been written to ensure that QStP will not result in layoffs, and thus employees feel free to make improvements even if they result in fewer workers in that particular agency or department.

And Goldberg, who admits that "some of the older labor people might think that young turks like me have been co-opted," says he can handle the accusation if that's what it takes to get his members some say in how they do their jobs.

While the state and the unions have agreed to keep the QStP initiative separate from the collective bargaining process, it was noted during the Task Force's hearings that collective bargaining and QStP are like parallel railroad tracks that seem likely to converge at some distant point. At the present time, the parties are establishing trust, building a record of success and learning to work together -- all skills that are slowly creeping into their handling of a range of issues. For instance, QStP has reduced union grievances even though that was not one of its objectives.

The QStP State Steering Committee consists of equal numbers of union and management leaders. In an arrangement typical to successful cooperative relationships, each department also has a steering committee to guide its QStP efforts made up of equal numbers of management and union personnel. To make the leadership structure work, more than 500 union and management members attended partnership training, called "Building Effective Steering Committees." Thus, QStP is developing a network of facilitators and a capacity for providing in-house training in joint quality improvement processes. Both union and management employees provide training and facilitate teams throughout departments, frequently co-facilitating or co-training with their counterparts.

Approximately 10,000 of the 59,500 state employees have completed a 3-day training program on QStP, another 5,000 employees have completed a shorter QStP overview and 120 employees have completed advanced training as QStP facilitators. "Quality forums" are held monthly and draw an average of 350 people. Each two-hour session brings state employees in contact with people and teams who have successfully used the tools and techniques of QStP.

Ohio QStP initiatives are in the beginning stages of implementation and are focused primarily on the first three steps of the state's strategic plan. The plan outlines specific "Steps to Quality" that will:

1. Build awareness and commitment of QStP with management and union leadership through extensive training. This process goes on continuously.
2. Develop the plan and structure, including vision and values, partnerships, quality leader and networks, steering committees, agency assessments and strategic planning.
3. Ready organizations for cultural change, including preparing managers for quality leadership, employees to work as team members, union and management to work in partnership, pilot learning programs and celebrate efforts.
4. Empower problem-solving at all levels: Establish quality improvement teams; push decision-making down to the lowest possible level; implement employee ideas; inter-agency teams to align organization's processes, and strengthen partnerships and increase communication with all employees.
5. Integrate quality in all systems as government's business philosophy: Measure success and progress based upon customer requirements, renovate systems to reward team efforts and encourage leadership, move from hierarchies to networks, all agencies mission-driven and customer-focused, and develop customer/supplier relationships with all branches of government and the private sector.

The ultimate goal is to reach the time when the principles, process and tools will simply become the normal, preferred way of doing business. Experts say it will take five to 10 years to achieve the final step, and that people who try to move up the steps too quickly will fail. But with persistence, patience and continuous learning -- underscored by the fundamental belief that incremental change is more long-lasting than home runs -- the state of Ohio intends to successfully reach its goal.