Nominate your staff for CHHS Office of Innovation - Cohort 2 !!

Who We Are

The California Health and Human Services (CHHS) Agency Office of Innovation (OI) is recruiting talented civil servants from our CHHS departments to join our next cohort. They will help us tackle issues at the convergence of program, people, process, policy and technology.

The OI brings the practices proven at the US Digital Service, 18F and the Presidential Innovation Fellows programs to CHHS through the most effective agents of change we know: CHHS staff. We are looking for individuals with proven records of looking at problems differently, fixing sticky problems and getting things done.

How It Works

OI does not hire outside staff. Instead, we take talented state staff and teach them modern digital service delivery skills. Working in teams of four, OI staff engage with departments to define problems, transform ideas into prototypes and test them to ensure the best ideas move forward.

Our success depends on support from leadership at the CHHS Agency and across the Departments to break down silos, create a safe space for experimentation and provide air cover while the teams define and untangle these complex challenges.

Cohort and Project Structure at a Glance

• Engagements run throughout the year with three to six concurrent projects running at any given time
• Each cohort last 2 years
• A new cohort starts every year in June, so the cohorts overlap by one year
• The maximum staff size is 24 comprised of 16 full time and 8 part time regardless of cohort. Therefore, the size of each incoming cohort varies based on the amount of available openings
• 3 staff from Cohort 1 will carry over into Cohort 2
• Cohort 2 needs 21 people - 13 full time and 8 part time.
• Cohort 1 ends June 28, 2019
• Cohort 2 begins June 3, 2019 and ends June 25, 2021
• Recruiting for Cohort 2 begins on March 11, 2019
• Training for Cohort 2 is June 3 to July 19

Chief Deputies: Nominate Your Staff 

We are looking for 21 staff to join Cohort 2: 13 full-time and 8 part-time. To nominate your staff for the upcoming cohort, please fill out a short survey form above. We ask you to share with us a little bit about the candidate you are nominating, their expertise, interests, and why you think they should become an OI team member. Please let us know if the candidate is being nominated for full or part time. During the interview process we will also ask to speak with the candidate’s direct supervisor(s) to get a better idea of their abilities, interests and opportunities for growth.

Important Note: All candidates must be nominated by their department's Chief Deputy. If you are an interested candidate, you cannot self-nominate; please speak with your management chain for their consideration and approval. Applications not approved by the departmental chief deputy cannot be considered.

What Are We Looking For In A Candidate

Our staff comes from all corners of CHHS and all levels. Specialized skills are a great bonus: software engineers, program/policy analysts, managers, lawyers, data scientists, designers, product managers, project managers, human resource specialists, procurement specialists, bureaucracy busters, organizers, inventors, “intra-preneurs” and more!

• Highly curious people with proven track records of getting things done by looking at problems differently and who know there multiple creative and powerful ways to solve problems
• EQ & Grit - Empathy and tenacity are just as important as expertise in your field.
• Team players - demonstrate humility and work collaboratively with others
• Diverse disciplines - in work and in life. Enjoy working with different perspectives or show dedication to strengthen our communities.
• Display leadership regardless of rank - Successful applicants have already demonstrated meaningful impact in their programs, gaining recognition among their peers for their contributions.
• Self-starters who can work well independently and without close day-today oversight/management.

Benefits to  the Departments

Since the OI launched in 2018, the OI staff have worked on successful engagements with 13 CHHS departments. Our efforts have helped departments improve worksflows by 60%, cut processing times by more than half, helped deliver prioritized product value, improved software delivery times and improved service delivery for key populations.

Our other key deliverable is skills exchange with your department. The OI teams work shoulder to shoulder with your staff teaching our methods as we build solutions. These methods continue to help your organization after the engagement to continue tightly defining problems so they spend less time fixing the wrong problems and more time fixing the right ones.

Staff returning to your department after training and experience working on projects will:

Have a better holistic view of CHHS and State government services, specifically:

• The dependencies and interrelations of departments and services:
  
  • How your department fits into the larger scope of the services provided by the state
  • The value of multiple departments working collaboratively to realize larger goals
• Have connections in many other CHHS Departments/Agency staff 
• A better understanding of the roles and specific services provided by each department to know where there might be value in collaboration for your department
• Be well versed on Governance processes and work happening at the CHHS agency level.
• Have experience with a wide variety of processes/technologies that may benefit your organization
• Bring knowledge of process improvements that have been successful in other areas that may be scalable for your department.
• Bring a new eye towards creating efficiencies and making your department processes more lean.

Benefits to The Candidate 

The techniques OI staff use on a daily basis are proven techniques used in private industry. They will learn and practice these cutting edge skills until they become habit. The training provides invaluable problem solving, communications and leadership skills. OI staff teach others as they build real solutions and bring human centered mindsets into everything they do. These are the future leaders for state government. They do the work, teach others as they go and are critical in delivering the modern government services that California deserves.

OI staff Position Description

To learn more about this role see the Office of Innovation Position Description in the attached document.