In the first decade of this century, Transformative Leadership was used extensively in Public Health, especially by the organizations of Health for Humanity and Vision in Practice, in countries as diverse as Albania, Cameroon, China, and Mongolia. Consultants also presented transformative leadership to the World Health Organization's Good Governance in Medicine Program, specifically in Jordan to representatives of Ministries of Health from the Middle East and at WHO's headquarters in Geneva to representatives from different countries.   

 

Co-Author of Transformative Leadership, Developing the Hidden Dimension, May Khadem who was very involved in these efforts, shared:

 

"A fundamental human right is access to high-quality affordable health care regardless of one’s ability to pay. It is sadly in the most vulnerable regions of the world where the burden of disease and disability are the most urgent that health services are least available. Simply training doctors and building clinics in these regions is inadequate to address the problem. While healthcare infrastructure and competent personnel are important, they are not able to address the challenges unless they can see from a larger perspective. The way we think, the assumptions we make, our attitudes, our intentions, and our motives affect how we deliver our professional services, treat disease, and promote wellness.

The traditional charitable interventions where experts travel to areas of need to treat disease, while helpful in times of crisis, cannot begin to address the overwhelming complexity of health problems in the world. These interconnected flaws in our systems have given rise to worldwide poverty, disease, and disability – problems that are steadily getting worse despite the trillions of dollars that are spent in social and economic development initiatives by both governments and non-governmental organizations. Any intervention that does not critically question the assumptions upon which we construct our work is doomed to repeat the same patterns. Therefore, the journey has to begin with us – how we think, who we are, and what is our purpose. Once we see ourselves as embedded in the problems we are trying to tackle, we may have a chance to undertake transformation. This is the journey of Transformative Leadership – remaking ourselves in order to remake our work, our communities, and the world.

While working to improve eye care systems in underserved areas of the world, it became clear to us that true capacity building had a spiritual dimension that had to be addressed alongside the necessary academic and technical capacities. We assisted our partners in finding those universal values within their own spiritual heritage and consciously embrace those values so that they could provide guidance for their professional work. Repeatedly they told us that they found this helpful, particularly when making difficult decisions and in times of crisis. Lacking a conceptual framework that had been consciously embraced, it was easy to slide back into self-serving habits."

Following is the example of system transformation shared by a colleague from the Mongolian Department of Health:​