McNeil Reconciliation Change Model
In the course of her extensive research and work in the field of racial and ethnic reconciliation, Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil developed the McNeil Reconciliation Change Model to describe and define the reconciliation process. The process involves raising awareness, redefining one’s identity, developing skills, and taking action. As people participate in this ongoing transformative process, they move from preservation and alienation to reconciliation and are equipped to build authentic relationships across racial and ethnic differences.
The goal of this model is to change the culture of an organization or institution from the inside out. Salter McNeil & Associates, LLC accomplish this by using an intentional team approach to guide an organization through the reconciliation process. Salter McNeil & Associates establishes and empowers an internal team of multiethnic leaders, who function as a “guiding coalition” that champion the ethnic and racial diversity initiative in every aspect of the group’s corporate life.
No efforts to improve intercultural competence will be sustained without implementing structural or systemic adjustments that foster the formation of a new community of people who identify with each other beyond their obvious differences. This is essential if reconciliation is to be an ongoing reality within the institution.
Although adding numerical diversity is an important step in an institution's journey toward racial reconciliation, this model goes beyond adding personnel or increasing the number of ethnically diverse members in a group. Instead, Salter McNeil & Associates, LLC will help those within the organization to realize the cultural assumptions that are operating in their setting and equip them to move beyond those assumptions.
» See a slideshow on how the Reconciliation Change Model Works
