Leadership, Governance, and Culture Change

The enactment of principles of Open Government across HHS has been guided by the HHS Innovation Council.  The Council activities, as described earlier in this plan, continue to look deeply at more effective ways to use the talent and resources of HHS to engage the public, particularly on participation and collaboration capabilities.  The Council has augmented its expertise with subcommittees and will continue to look for new opportunities to build on the successes of the past several years.

An example of the forward-looking view that the Innovation Council has on governance and leadership in our Open Government plan is the design of the new Innovation Fellows program described in detail under the Flagship Initiatives section of this plan.  The projects supported by external fellows offer important ways for non-federal subject-matter experts to engage in meaningful projects across HHS. 

The Innovation Council will also address activities identified by the public to improve communication and participation methods.  Building on the survey information obtained from our Federal Advisory Committee executive secretaries, the Innovation Council may look at new ways to augment the uses of social media platforms to gain meaningful input on policies, regulations, and other key issues.  New approaches to uses of crowdsourcing technologies, analytics from social networking data feeds, and other modern approaches to informing HHS programs will also be discussed. 

The Innovation Council will also continue efforts to improve cross-agency collaboration using partnering opportunities on topic specific areas.  Additional work will be done to increase the capabilities to partner with non-profit organizations and community-based groups to strengthen the capabilities for public engagement.