1) What is your experience with stakeholder mapping? How do you use stakeholder maps at your site? Discuss how you (and your colleagues) determine the importance of involving one stakeholder versus another. For example, how do you determine who constitutes your CAB?
We as a company did mapping workshops at each of the study sites to map what they already have in place in their community engagement programs. This mapping tool is based on the “onion” graph and then lists all possible types of stakeholders from study team to participants to national stakeholders. At site we would discuss each type of stakeholder at site and the type of relationship (ie. healthy relationship with frequent contact or currently unhealthy relationship with negative or no contact) between the site contact and stakeholder. Usually from these meetings it became clearer where some more work or follow-up was required and why.
2) Stakeholder engagement is not easy and multiple partnerships can be hard to manage. How can you partner with stakeholders to create a community of sustained engagement? How can you get members of your research team to “buy-in” to sustained or longer-term stakeholder partnerships?
It is always important to show some interest in the stakeholders’ activities too, for instance if your stakeholder is a CAB member who is also involved in a community project, to try and be involved and supportive of non-trial-related activities and to try to collaborate on projects where both parties/causes benefit from it. This should get the research team more involved in partnerships too.
Research Training for CAB members are also a very good idea. This keeps members engaged and part of the cause instead of the relationship being only about giving feedback in one direction at a time. Once someone feels equipped to deal with a concept or situation, they will automatically feel more part of it and responsible for it.
