Around twenty managers from health and social sector institutions completed the University Expert Diploma in Values-Based Leadership, offered by the Chair of Values-Based Leadership at UManresa, on July 7, 2026. Since January, they have taken part in a four-stage journey: discover, be consistent, build, and activate.

This is the second edition of a program designed to go beyond theoretical knowledge, fostering deeper self-awareness and encouraging participants to adopt a proactive attitude as agents of transformation within their organizations and communities.

The transformation of health systems also involves rethinking how we learn, lead, and create impact. In this context, the Chair in Leadership in Values at UManresa is contributing to the publication TLAHUI – Transformation and Leadership for Innovation in Public Health Learning, a work that offers new perspectives for addressing major global challenges.

Òscar Dalmau, a member of the Chair, is co-author alongside Dr. Nenetzen Saavedra from the School of Public Health of Mexico. The book was presented at the HELIX Mexico international conference, held from May 19 to 22, as a space for sharing visions on the future of education in public health.

Dawn as a turning point

TLAHUI, a word of ancestral Mexican origin that refers to the first light of day, becomes a metaphor for the current moment in public health: a time of change that calls for awakening new ways of thinking and acting. Schools of public health face the need to adapt to increasingly complex environments, doing so through an approach that integrates knowledge, awareness, and social responsibility. The book offers a framework for this transformation grounded in values-based leadership, understood as a driving force for meaningful change with real impact on people and communities.

Learning in new ways

One of the key contributions of the work is its proposal to rethink the learning experience. The book’s augmented format, which integrates interactive resources and playful elements, responds to the need to bring knowledge closer in a more vivid, relational, and meaningful way.
The content is structured around six axes — shaping the concept of TLAHUI — addressing, among others, the transformation of health systems, the importance of leading through values, the design of people-centered experiences, and the creation of open and connected learning ecosystems. All of this is framed within an approach that integrates innovation, ethics, and humanism.

From knowledge to action

Beyond the publication, the project takes shape through the launch of a continuing education diploma with micro-credentials, jointly promoted by the School of Public Health of Mexico and the Chair in Leadership in Values at UManresa. An initiative aimed at connecting learning, professional practice, and personal development. The book includes a foreword by Dr. Laura Magaña, President and CEO of the ASPPH, who captures the essence of this transformation: “When we transform education in public health, we transform the health of populations. And when we transform the health of populations, we transform the world.” Along this path, the invitation is clear: to lead through values in order to contribute, through education, to a healthier and more humane future.

The Manresa City Council and UManresa have presented the conclusions of the “Values in Play” project to local sports organizations. This initiative, promoted by the City Council and developed by the Chair of Leadership in Values, has made it possible to identify the principles that should guide sports practice in the city. As a result of this collaborative process with the organizations, the Guide to Good Practices in Values-Based Leadership has been developed, aimed at all those involved in sports in Manresa.

Commitment, cooperation, effort and respect: the pillars of the model

The project was built through a participatory process led by the Chair, combining training workshops, co-creation sessions and various participation mechanisms to gather input from the different stakeholders involved.
The methodology was inspired by the values-based leadership model of Pep Guardiola and Manel Estiarte, which underpins the Chair’s framework and structures the work into four key dimensions: personal, team, organizational and environmental. From this process, four core values emerged to guide sports practice in the city: commitment, cooperation, effort and respect. These are considered essential across grassroots, amateur and professional sport, and are reflected in concrete behaviours both on and off the field: individual responsibility, teamwork, personal improvement, respect for rules and people, and engagement with the sporting environment. The work also made it possible to classify values according to their sphere of application. At the individual level, discipline, humility, effort and self-improvement stand out; at the team level, cooperation, respect, commitment and generosity take centre stage; while at the institutional level, clubs and organizations embrace values such as inclusion, responsibility, recognition and role modelling, reinforcing their role as educational and social references.

Strong participation from the local sports ecosystem

The project involved significant participation from the local sports community. In total, 400 people took part, linked to 35 sports organizations, including coaches, athletes and families, as well as representatives from educational centres. Among the activities carried out were two performances of the gamified show “The Match”, aimed at students in the 4th year of compulsory secondary education and upper secondary (Baccalaureate) at Guillem Catà Institute and FEDAC, with 200 students participating. In parallel, 151 survey responses from clubs, technical staff and students were analysed. Beyond the four core values, the project also highlighted other relevant principles such as inclusion, generosity, humility, responsibility, role modelling and institutional cooperation, reinforcing the role of sport as an educational tool and a driver of social cohesion.

The results were shared during a feedback session at the University with participating organizations, helping to validate the conclusions and strengthen the shared commitment to promoting a values-based sports model.
The City Council’s Councillor for Sports, Anjo Valentí, подчеркed that the goal is for local sports organizations to be known not only for their results, but also for their ability to transmit values both on and off the field of play, positioning Manresa as a reference in this regard. Meanwhile, Valentí Martínez, Academic Director of the Chair of Leadership in Values, highlighted that the project exemplifies the university’s commitment to ensuring that academic knowledge and reflection have a real and transformative impact, developed in collaboration with the local community.

A guide to embedding values in everyday practice

The Guide to Good Practices in Values-Based Leadership provides clear and practical guidance on how to integrate these values into daily sports practice. The document links the identified values to observable behaviours and actions in training sessions, competitions and relationships with athletes, families and the wider environment. Although it is primarily aimed at coaches, it also considers the role of clubs, management teams, families and other stakeholders, with the aim of aligning discourse and practice and strengthening the educational leadership role of sport. Designed as a practical and reference tool, the guide seeks to help consolidate a shared sports model in Manresa based on values, role modelling and collective responsibility.

Around fifty professionals gathered on 10 April in Manresa with a shared goal: to reflect together on how to transform practices, organisations and professional culture in order to move towards mental health care free from stigma. The meeting took place within the framework of the second Inter‑Chair Conference at UManresa, a joint initiative of the Mental Health, Leadership in Values, and Simulation and Patient Safety Chairs of the UVic‑UCC, all based in Manresa, with the collaboration of the Althaia Foundation. This year’s conference focused on stigma surrounding mental health, a persistent challenge that concerns both individuals and institutions.

One of the key ideas to emerge during the conference was the need for a collective and sustained commitment to transform care models and organisational culture. As noted by the Academic Director of the Leadership in Values Chair, Valentí Martínez, such initiatives “cannot remain isolated exercises, but must be translated into an active and shared commitment.” A commitment that involves re‑examining perspectives, attitudes and everyday practices.

The discussions highlighted that addressing stigma in mental health must be grounded in four key values: dignity, humility, empathy and trust. Dignity, because stigma dehumanises and strips people of their identity, and because respect is essential to ensuring safe and high‑quality care. Humility, understood as professionals’ ability to recognise that there are attitudes and behaviours — often unconscious — that can create barriers in relationships of care. Empathy, which is necessary to understand and support people’s life processes, especially in situations of vulnerability. And trust, which is essential for creating safe spaces where patients can speak without fear of being judged or labelled, and where professionals can act without a constant fear of making mistakes.

In this regard, the conference emphasised the importance of creating contexts of psychological safety that encourage dialogue, break silences and contribute to more humane, inclusive and person‑centred care. A challenge that directly calls upon values‑based leadership and the transformative role of organisations.

The Values-Based Leadership Chair is delivering the workshop “Caring with Purpose: Communication, teamwork, collaboration, and patient and family care” at the Hospital of Pallars. A group of 20 people is taking part. This activity is part of a set of tailored training actions for different institutions aimed at professionals with team management responsibilities.