The Mosaic Partnerships™ program is designed to build social capital within racial and ethnic diversity and is also helpful when you have different groups of people that may distrust one another, as often seen during mergers and acquisitions. When the bonds that unite people of different races and ethnicities are strengthened communities are elevated to a higher degree of social connectedness, trust, and mutual cooperation. These essential building blocks of community development enable the community to actualize the latent talents and skills embodied within it, encouraging the full realization of its social and economic potential.
The Mosaic Partnerships™ process involves a six to twelve month guided experience for participants. It fosters trusting relationships between members of the community, who are paired across race and/or ethnicity. The program begins with the senior leaders from a wide range of sectors and niches in the community and then, with each phase, cascades deeper into the community, continuing to tap formal and informal leadership.
Key Principles of the Program
Start with Natural Opinion Leaders:
The opinions and actions of a small percentage of influential members of a group, known as “natural opinion leaders”, have great influence on the rest of the population. These opinion leaders have many dense social and professional networks over which they have significant influence. When those opinion leaders influence a sufficient number of people in those networks, a shift in common values occurs and cultural transformation begins.
Trust Development:
Researchers and social scientists continually point to trust as the most basic building block of human relationships. Without trust, there can be no sustainable social change. As such, the various elements of Mosaic Partnerships™ have been carefully crafted to guide partners through a yearlong journey to an ever-deepening friendship and trust. We have found that increased trust leads to improved communication and understanding, greater integration of social and professional networks, enriched and meaningful dialogues, and increased community engagement on the part of the participants.
Transformation Not Information:
Studies on adult learning styles have found that the most effective means of learning and creating behavioral transformation is direct personal experience, which is the primary focus of Mosaic Partnerships™. Heart-to-heart exchanges are the most powerful ones, as they cause the participants to question their unconscious, pre-conceived notions. Through promoting trust and fellowship between participants across difference, Mosaic Partnerships™ fosters the environment necessary to encourage genuine interactions and, thereby, creates a prime opportunity for the recognition of our human oneness.