Why Course Correction is a Must for Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

Views expressed in this article are personal. 

Imagine you’re the captain of a ship. The sea is vast, the weather unpredictable, and the destination is clear but far away. You’ve got your crew, your supplies, and a solid plan, but there’s one thing you absolutely need to ensure you reach your destination: a reliable compass. Without it, even the plans can get off track.

Now, replace the ship with your stakeholder engagement strategy in Medical Affairs, and the compass with course correction. Navigating a ship is a perfect metaphor for stakeholder engagement strategy in Medical Affairs. Both require careful planning, constant adjustments, and a clear sense of direction to reach the goal, impacting patient outcomes. In this post, we’ll explain why course correction is essential for keeping your stakeholder engagement strategy in check and your impact on track. Plus, we’ll share some practical actions you can take right away to ensure you’re always steering in the right direction.

Medical Affairs Stakeholder Engagement Challenges

Navigating stakeholder engagement is challenging and many Medical Affairs teams struggle to get it right. Challenges mainly revolve around nailing the Why, What, Who, How and So What.

Why do I want to engage (strategy), what am I going to do (tactics), who do I need to engage (stakeholders), how (content, channels, partnerships) and so what (measuring the impact). How many of us stop here, struggle a bit to measure true impact, and then continue without regular reassessment?  Do you sometimes find yourself investing time and resources into initiatives that don’t move the needle and wonder why?  Have you ever considered course correction? Before jumping into course correction let’s tackle a bit more the “who” that we are engaging with (which we believe is equally important).

Engaging the Wrong Stakeholders

When we say “wrong” stakeholders, it’s not that there is something “wrong” with them, it’s just that they are not the “right” stakeholders that can help us create the “right” impact. When you are put under pressure to fulfill a certain number of visits per month, It’s easy to fall into the trap of spending too much time with stakeholders who are easy to engage, the ones who are super friendly, and those who are easily accessible. While these conversations are comfortable and feel good, they may not move your objectives forward. By focusing on the number of visits, we are letting the real impact slip away.

Failing to Move the Needle In Medical Affairs

On the other hand, you might have the right people involved, but the team is still not making progress. This happens when engagement efforts do not yield the expected outcomes, often due to a lack of strategic alignment, wrong tactics, or poor engagement. No matter how hard you try, the impact will be minimal if stakeholder engagement and strategy are not properly aligned.

Course Correction: The Essential Compass for Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

So, you figured out that you are not making progress. What do you do? Enter course correction, your trusty compass that ensures you stay on track, no matter how the seas of stakeholder engagement change.

Course correction isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s an essential part of any successful stakeholder engagement strategy. It’s the process of regularly reassessing and adjusting your strategy, tactics, stakeholder selection or even engagement methods to ensure it remains effective and aligned with your goals. Just like a captain needs to make small adjustments to keep the ship on course, you need to make regular tweaks to ensure you’re still headed in the right direction.

Check out Carlos’ powerful tool to help with this: the SPEC Framework (Strategic Planning & Engagement Circle). This framework is like the ultimate navigation system, integrating course correction as a critical component of successful stakeholder engagement. This is key to staying on course.

Incorporating Course Correction into Your Stakeholder Engagement Plan

Integrating course correction into your stakeholder engagement strategy is easy. Here’s how:

1. Incorporate Course Correction Discussions: Integrate routine discussions within your team and cross-functional groups to evaluate what’s working well and what isn’t. Use these insights to refine your strategy, tactics, stakeholder selection, or engagement methods.
2. Have Regular Strategy/ Progress Check-Ins: Implement regular strategy reviews to determine if you’re on track. If you’re not seeing the progress you expected, it’s time to make some adjustments.

Watch the full video to hear Carlos’ tips for MSLs to incorporate into their day-to-day.

The Consequences of Not Course Correcting

When you don’t consider changing circumstances, you risk continuing down a path that no longer serves your goals. Ignoring the need for course correction can lead to significant setbacks, wasted resources, a lot of frustration, and a lack of IMPACT!!

Have you seen this happen? Share your story!

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