A perspective from the 2026 European Meeting of ISMPP keynote presentation by Michael Siller, MSC, a coach and consultant with expertise in corporate culture and leadership, change management, and intercultural management
Introduction
In medical communications, the pressure to deliver faster without compromising scientific rigor has never been greater. Deadlines compress, expectations rise, and new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) promise efficiency while introducing new uncertainty. The instinctive response is often to push harder and move faster. But what if that instinct is part of the problem? The keynote address at the 2026 ISMPP EU meeting by Michael Siller, Slowing Down to Speed Up! Why Resilience, Adaptability, and Trust Are the Missing Links Between Speed and Academic Rigour in Medical Writing, challenges this approach. Sustainable speed is not achieved through acceleration alone, but through deliberate pauses that strengthen resilience, adaptability, and trust.
The tension between speed and rigor is often framed as a trade-off. One must give way to the other. However, this framing may be misleading. Instead, as Siller argues, this dynamic should be seen as a paradox, two competing demands that must coexist. The challenge, then, is not to resolve the paradox, but to navigate it productively.
Historical examples illustrate this well. Roman engineers slowed construction to build durable roads, enabling faster military movement over time. Railway pioneers standardized time to prevent collisions, sacrificing local autonomy for system-wide efficiency. During the US space program, human verification of early computer calculations ensured accuracy before launch. In each case, slowing down to put systems and practices in place enabled sustained speed and unlocked better outcomes.
Theme 1: Reset Cognitive Load
In today’s medical communications environment, similar pressures exist, with added complexity. AI tools introduce new capabilities while raising questions about reliability, accountability, and appropriate use. At the same time, teams operate under increasing cognitive and emotional strain. This strain has measurable effects. Stress narrows attention, reduces cognitive flexibility, and limits problem-solving capacity.
One key concept introduced in the session was the idea of two interacting emotional systems: a warning system, which signals stress and potential threats, and a reward system associated with positive emotions and energy. When the warning system dominates, people may default to reactive behaviors such as rushing, avoidance, or cognitive overload. However, research in positive psychology suggests that even brief positive emotional experiences can help counter the effects of stress, restoring cognitive capacity, broadening perspective, and supporting more effective problem-solving. In practical terms, this suggests that small, intentional pauses that restore focus or perspective are not inefficiencies but enablers of higher-quality work. The following practices, adapted from the session, offer simple ways to apply these principles in day-to-day work (Figure 1).
Stress narrows our view. It puts on those biological blinders.
Figure 1: Resetting Emotional Systems
Theme 2: Reframe the Challenge
Adaptability is central to how teams navigate complexity. Siller argues that many workplace challenges are framed too narrowly as binary choices—speed or rigor, AI or human expertise. When teams stay trapped in this either–or mindset, the result is often compromised solutions that satisfy neither goal: work that is almost on time but not quite usable, or technically sound but too slow to matter. Moving beyond these binary choices begins with recognizing how perspective shapes perception. As illustrated in Figure 2, reframing a challenge can shift the conversation from AI versus human expertise, for example, to identifying where the strengths of each can work together. Siller encourages teams to slow down long enough to reframe the problem itself. By expanding the solution space—asking whether both needs can be met, or whether the problem disappears under a different set of assumptions—teams can often find approaches that avoid compromise altogether.
Figure 2: Moving Beyond Binary Choices
We don’t see the world as it is. We always see the world as we are.
Through a simple priming exercise, Siller demonstrated how people can interpret the same image differently based on what they have seen before. The exercise illustrated a broader point: perception is shaped by prior experiences, context, and expectations. In collaborative settings, such differences are inevitable. Authors, cross-functional stakeholders, medical writers, and reviewers may approach the same challenge from different perspectives. Similar considerations apply when teams evaluate AI-generated outputs, where assumptions and interpretations may not always be immediately apparent. When these perspectives remain implicit, teams can talk past one another, misinterpret intent, and lose time. Adaptability, in this sense, is not about reacting faster, but about deliberately surfacing assumptions, making perspectives visible, and creating space for solutions that would otherwise remain hidden.
Theme 3: Build Trust
Finally, trust emerged as a critical, yet often underexamined, factor in speed. In low-trust environments, teams compensate with excessive checking, overcommunication, and defensive behaviors, all of which slow progress. In contrast, trust reduces friction, cuts down complexity, and enables more efficient collaboration.
Importantly, trust is not binary. Rather than an all-or-nothing decision, it can be approached incrementally—a perspective that is particularly relevant as teams explore the use of AI. One suggested mindset shift is moving from expert to explorer. Instead of relying solely on established knowledge, teams can engage in structured experimentation, using AI selectively in lower-risk contexts and learning through shared experience.
Trust is not a conclusion. It’s a conversation.
Creating safe spaces for this exploration, where both successes and failures can be discussed openly, may help organizations build confidence without compromising standards. In this way, trust becomes less about certainty and more about creating the conditions for learning, experimentation, and continuous improvement.
Closing Insight
For medical communications professionals, the path to greater efficiency may not lie in working faster, but in working differently. By intentionally slowing down at key moments—whether to reset cognitive load, reframe a challenge, or build trust within teams—organizations may ultimately move faster with greater confidence and clarity. As AI and other innovations reshape workflows, resilience, adaptability, and trust may provide a foundation for navigating complexity, helping teams balance speed and rigor without sacrificing either. In this sense, slowing down is not the opposite of speed—it can be the path to achieving it.
The paradox between speed and academic rigor is not a wall. It’s a doorway.
Acknowledgment: The ISMPP Insider Content Lab team would like to thank Michael Siller, MSC, who participated in the 2026 European Meeting of ISMPP as a keynote speaker for Slowing Down to Speed Up! Why Resilience, Adaptability, and Trust Are the Missing Links Between Speed and Academic Rigour in Medical Writing.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the speaker in his presentation at the 2026 European Meeting of ISMPP are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of ISMPP.
Disclosure: This article was developed by the ISMPP Insider Content Lab team using ChatGPT 5.2 (OpenAI) customized to meet the requirements for a Content Lab article. Inputs to the custom GPT were the ISMPP-supplied session transcript (Snapsight) and the onsite slide presentation by the faculty. Human editorial and process oversight was provided by members of the Content Lab team, Vidhi Vashisht, Jerolyn Monte, and Ross Ruriani, and Doreen Valentine (ISMPP).
©2026 International Society of Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP)
