<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Both university and non-university stakeholders should be involved in the process of curriculum development in medical schools, because all are concerned with the competencies of the graduates. That may be difficult unless appropriate strategies are used to motivate each stakeholder. From 1999 to 2006, eight medical schools in Vietnam worked together to change the curriculum and teaching for general medical students to make it more community oriented. This paper describes the factors that motivated the different stakeholders to participate in curriculum change and teaching in Vietnamese medical schools and the activities to address those factors and have sustainable contributions from all relevant stakeholders.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Case study analysis of contributions to the change process, using reports, interviews, focus group discussions and surveys and based on Herzberg's Motivation Theory to analyze involvement of different stakeholders.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Different stakeholders were motivated by selected activities, such as providing opportunities for non-university stakeholders to share their opinions, organizing interactions among university stakeholders, stimulating both bottom-up and top-down inputs, focusing on learning from each other, and emphasizing self-motivation factors.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Herzberg Motivation theory helped to identify suitable approaches to ensure that teaching topics, materials and assessment methods more closely reflected the health care needs of the community. Other medical schools undertaking a reform process may learn from this experience.</p>