Too much to do, and no guideline for most of it

You have more to do this week than the week has hours.

The list does not get shorter.

It gets longer.

A community refuses a service, and you have to find out why before you can move.

Your data shows people who are being missed, and you have to work out how to reach them.

Two emergencies arrive at once, and you have to decide which one waits.

None of that is written in a clinical guideline.

You do it anyway.

You often pay for it too.

The airtime to call a colleague.

The transport to reach a family.

We have now written that work down, with the people who do it.

The local leadership guide names what you already do when the guideline runs out.

It helps you show that work to a supervisor, a hiring panel, or a review board.

Download the guide in English: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21528101

Télécharger le guide en français: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21542268

Join the free peer learning course: https://go.learning.foundation/c/32437

What is the Leadership framework?

The guide has two simple parts.

Nine domains name what you do.

Three levels describe how far each behavior (also called “competency”) has grown.

Nine domains of practice

The domains are adaptive leadership and critical reasoning, community trust and accountability, digital and data skills, resource mobilization, climate health and One Health, humanitarian protection and security, psychosocial leadership and staff wellbeing, networked learning, and adaptive clinical and public health practice.

Level 1, the Practitioner

You apply your skills in your daily tasks.

You follow standards, you spot problems early, and you keep the service running.

Level 2, the Collaborator

You read your local situation and adapt.

You share practical tips with peers, and you change your approach to fit your community.

Level 3, the Strategist

You mentor others, you mobilize resources, and you work to change the system.

You turn what worked locally into something others can use.

Practical activities to grow as a leader for your community

The guide turns all of this into eight short activities.

You choose the domain closest to your work.

You write one real example.

You place yourself at a level, using evidence and not a feeling.

You ask a colleague whether they agree.

You choose one goal for the next month.

You plan the first action for this week.

You turn two behaviours into questions for hiring or supervision.

You share one experience so another worker can use it.

You finish holding one page: your domain, your level, your proof, your goal, and your next action.

Why it is worth your minutes

The work that nobody records becomes visible, in words a supervisor can read.
You get evidence for your next review, interview, or promotion request.
You get one next step instead of a long list of things to fix.
If you manage a team, you get two questions that help you find the people who solve problems rather than forward them.
You see what peers did about the same problem, so you do not start from nothing.
The one page record is yours to keep.

This guide works with what you already use

You still follow your clinical protocols.

You still report through your surveillance system.

You still work to your national plan.

The guide names the judgement you use in between those things.

It came out of the field, and it is built to sit next to official guidance.

Health workers who shaped it put it plainly.

They said they work with two kinds of knowledge at once: the science of the right way to do things, and the knowledge that comes from knowing a particular community and what shapes people’s lives there.

Success comes from combining the two: https://www.learning.foundation/2023/10/04/an-open-source-manifesto-for-investment-in-health-workers-2-0/

They also said they respect and enjoy hearing from global experts, and that talking to peers with daily field experience is often more relevant to them.

Both, not one instead of the other: https://www.learning.foundation/2023/10/04/an-open-source-manifesto-for-investment-in-health-workers-2-0/

Where does this guide come from?

This guide did not start as a guide.

It started as a Manifesto that health workers wrote about their own work.

In June 2023 we published a first open draft and asked a set of open questions.

Why do you work for health?

What will help you build trust with the communities you serve?

How has sharing experience with colleagues helped you?

Read version 1.0 in English: https://www.learning.foundation/2023/06/07/an-open-source-manifesto-for-global-health-1-0/

Version 1.0 en français: https://www.learning.foundation/fr/2023/06/07/pourquoi-un-manifeste-open-source-pour-la-sante-globale-version-1-0/

In October 2023 we published version 2.0, built from voluntary answers by more than 1,000 health workers.

Answers were grouped by theme, and the recurring themes were summarized.

Read version 2.0 in English: https://www.learning.foundation/2023/10/04/an-open-source-manifesto-for-investment-in-health-workers-2-0/

Version 2.0 en français: https://www.learning.foundation/fr/2023/10/04/manifeste-open-source-pour-linvestissement-dans-les-travailleurs-de-la-sante-2-0/

On 15 September 2023, 390 health leaders, most of them ministry of health staff from districts and facilities in more than 80 countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, met to review the draft.

No international consultants, agencies, or donors were in the room.

Watch the session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CejtoYOCZBY

Those recurring themes became the nine domains of the local leadership guide: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21528101

When you use this guide, you are using solutions that peers have already tested in conditions like your own.

We state one limit openly. Contributors chose to take part rather than being sampled at random. So the guide shows the range of skills that matter, not how common each one is: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21528101

The course, if you want company

The guide works on its own.

It works better with others.

Our open access peer learning course connects you with colleagues who face the same shortages and the same overlapping emergencies.

You work on a real challenge from your own job, you get feedback from peers, and you act week by week.

You finish holding a real plan for your own work and a Certificate of Contribution.

It records what you did, not how many hours you attended, and you can submit it to your employer or your professional body.

Bring one colleague.

It works best taken together, and learners who start with a peer are more likely to finish.

Enroll here: https://go.learning.foundation/c/32437

Where to start this week

Do one thing.

Open the guide and read the nine domain names.

Circle the one that sounds most like your week.

Then write one sentence about a real thing you did last month that fits it.

That is the whole task for this week.

Do not try to score yourself on all nine domains.

The guide takes you through the rest, one step at a time, when you have the minutes.

Closing

Next week the list will still be too long, and the resources will still be short.

You will not face it from nothing.

You will have a name for the work you do when the guideline stops, a page that proves you did it, and colleagues who are working on the same thing this week.

Handoff note

Guide, all language versions:

English, “Local leadership guide: a tool for action and change”: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21528101
French, “Guide du leadership local: un outil pour l’action et le changement”: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21542268

Manifesto, all language versions:

Version 1.0, English, 7 June 2023: https://www.learning.foundation/2023/06/07/an-open-source-manifesto-for-global-health-1-0/
Version 1.0, français, 7 juin 2023: https://www.learning.foundation/fr/2023/06/07/pourquoi-un-manifeste-open-source-pour-la-sante-globale-version-1-0/
Version 2.0, English, 4 October 2023: https://www.learning.foundation/2023/10/04/an-open-source-manifesto-for-investment-in-health-workers-2-0/
Version 2.0, français, 4 octobre 2023: https://www.learning.foundation/fr/2023/10/04/manifeste-open-source-pour-linvestissement-dans-les-travailleurs-de-la-sante-2-0/
Consultation recording, 15 September 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CejtoYOCZBY

Open items for you to confirm before publication:

Contributor numbers do not agree across sources. Manifesto 2.0 states “more than 1000 health workers”. The same page describes the consultation as reviewing a manifesto developed by “more than 1,200 community-based health leaders”. The framework methods annex states “more than 1,300”. The draft uses “more than 1,000” because that is the figure on the manifesto page itself. Tell me which figure is correct and I will align all three.
Both Zenodo DOIs are used as you supplied them. I could not resolve either from here, so please confirm they resolve and that the English record is the right citation for the nine domains and the self-selection limitation.
Named contributors are quoted from the public Manifesto 2.0 page. Confirm that consent covers reuse in this announcement, and tell me the role and country for Caroline Akosile, Gifty Akusi-Ajibe, and Souleymane Traore, which the source page does not state.
No AI chat or companion tool URL has been supplied, so none appears.
Confirm whether the course section should state a time commitment.