Multi-Stakeholder Research Journey

Engagement Roadmap

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together

-African Proverb

Engagement and Research are parallel and equally important paths on a Multi-stakeholder Research Team Journey. Critical relationships are being established as you form a team to make new scientific discoveries. Those relationships will have impact on adoption and implementation outcomes. Equity, objectivity and respect are equally important to outcomes, methodology and scientific rigor. Therefore, it is important to establish a multi-stakeholder planning team able to champion and facilitate impartial engagement so that all stakeholder partners who join the journey are able to influence outcomes. Working thoughtfully together, you will take it...

...one step at a time

Step 1

Plan the Journey Together

Step 2

Recruit New Travelers Together

Step 3

Orient and Train Together

Step 4

Facilitate Teamwork Together

Step 5

Sustain Partnerships
Together

Plan the Journey Together


  • Establish a Multi-Stakeholder Planning Team that includes end users and decision makers

  • Learn What Matters Most to Patients, Families and Clinicians Within Your Stakeholder Community

  • Establish Shared Visions, Goals and Messaging in Language Agreed Upon by All

  • Assess and Address Needs, Strengths and Biases of Planning Team Partners

  • Establish Healthy, Accessible and Safe Systems of Communication and Collaboration

  • Establish an Environment Infused with the Spirit of Appreciation, Kindness and Inquiry

  • Practice Structured Facilitated Processes


We need to discover the root causes of success rather than the root causes of failure

-David Cooperrider

Print or download the Planning Checklist. Links to additional planning tools are included.

Planning Checklist

Recruit New Travelers To Join

Enlist Planning Group Members to Support Engagement of New Partners

Use Accessible Scripts and Messaging to Advertise Your Vision

Use Structured Facilitated Processes

Discover What Matters Most to Stakeholder Candidates

Conduct Needs, Strengths and Biases Assessments

Keep All Stakeholder Community Partner Candidates in the Loop

Download and Print the Recruiting Checklist


Recruiting Stakeholder Community Partners Checklist and Tools at a glance 7.13.21

Orient and Train Together


  • Welcome Everyone Warmly

  • Get to Know One Another Beyond Degrees and Disease

  • Establish Reciprocal Relationships and Shared Humanity

  • Embrace Diversity, Equity, Inclusion,

  • Assess Strengths, Needs

  • Embolden and Encourage Stakeholder Influence in Research

  • Set the Tone for Teamwork, Kindness and Appreciation

  • Establish a Strong Buddy System

  • Share Information With All

  • Maintain a Spirit of Appreciation and Inquiry


After all , we are all just walking each other home....



Orientation Checklist

Facilitate Teamwork


  • Emphasize Collaboration, Appreciation and the Joy of Inquiry

  • Break Often to Enjoy Views and Celebrate Accomplishments

  • Adjust the Pace According to the Needs of Your Partners

  • Make Discoveries Together

  • Spread the Word of Your Accomplishments Together

  • Maintain a Spirit of Appreciation and Inquiry-it's the little things...


It is not just the destination, but each individual you travel with that matters.


Sustain Reciprocal Relationships Through All Types of Weather


  • Revisit the 5Rs, the 6Cs and the 7Ss to Assess, Reflect or Adjust

  • Solve Problems and Resolve Conflicts Patiently and Kindly

  • Improve Interpersonal Relationships with Respectful Conversation

  • Celebrate Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships Regularly and Often

  • Remember Your Brilliance, Resilience and Worthiness

  • Maintain a Spirit of Appreciation and Inquiry

  • Eliminate the Tyranny of the Urgent


Coming together is a beginning. Staying together is progress. Working together is success

-Henry Ford

  • Demonstrate appreciation and patience for diverse styles of communication

  • Assume best intentions: clarify before passing judgement

  • Address conflict by pausing to appreciate, empathize, understand before asserting your needs

  • Consider all mistakes as learning opportunities

  • Revisit team norms, the 5Rs, the 6Cs and the 7Ss regularly to assess engagement

  • Hold all team members accountable to team norms and rules of engagement to support successful outcomes

  • Share information openly and honestly to uphold PCORI principles of transparency

  • Share information, leadership and decision making with all members of the team

  • Eliminate power differentials with trauma informed facilitation and crucial conversation skills

  • Raise awareness of the impacts on health of unhealthy working environments

  • Raise awareness of changing cultural norms

  • Ask and acknowledge what everyone values most for partnering on a multi-stakeholder team regularly and often.

For more information on the original Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute projects that inspired this website material, please visit:

website links to :

Clinical Trials.gov: The Integrated Behavioral Health and Primary Care Research Study Identifier: NCT02868983

Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care (IBH-PC) to improve patient-centered outcomes in adults with multiple chronic medical and behavioral health conditions: study protocol for a pragmatic cluster-randomized control trial

PCORI Partnering Guide for Research -CIRCLE: Cooperatively Inspired Research Community for Learning and Engagement