-: You know, many people would look at me
and see a handful of demographic identities.
I'm a woman, I'm a member of the LGBTQ community.
I'm even an immigrant to the United States.
But the identity that matters most to me right now
is that of caregiver.
On March 7th, 2018, I was coming home from client travel.
And my wife had been at the hospital that day
for a colonoscopy.
While she was there,
the testing had uncovered stage four colorectal cancer.
Her prognosis was grim.
And as you can probably imagine,
our lives were turned upside down in a heartbeat.
And part of what I had to sort out
was, How would I be a caregiver in the context of my job?
You know, consulting is not exactly known as an industry
that is all that easy to manage with home life.
You know, the practical reality is
it is a very demanding job with very high expectations
in terms of the hours we need to be available,
how flexible we need to be,
the travel that we need to undertake.
And all of that was going to be really, really hard to do.
And it was really in that moment that I stepped back
and I recognized what a powerful
and profound opportunity for us to really rethink
how we approach diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Because as I began to solve for that role of caregiver,
I saw two really powerful sets of needs.
You know, one of those was functional.
I had to figure out how I was going to manage
and balance this job.
And it was working with an incredible set of BCG leaders
and mentors that I was able to recraft my job.
I formally went to part-time.
I took a look at leadership roles that I held
and said some of these have to go away so I can make space.
But I found tremendous support
from a functional standpoint to really rebuild a model
that I could balance with the demands of needs at home.
But the other piece of it was profoundly emotional.
You know, after almost 15 years of building a career
and striving to be successful
and continuously reach that next step,
I had to take a step back
and rethink where I was spending my energy
and what my priorities were.
And it was really through
just absolutely tremendous engagement
with my leadership and my mentors,
that I was able to find those emotional unlocks
to say it was okay, it was going to be fine.
I didn't have to be anxious about being the breadwinner,
the source of medical security for our family,
that I could do both, and that I had a firm
that was going to support me along that journey.
You know, as we entered the early months of the pandemic,
we took a look inside BCG,
and we said you know, we've done a really great job
supporting our women and advancing a host of initiatives
to support women who are struggling
to also be moms in the workplace.
But as COVID unfolded, we recognized
Gosh, there is a much broader universe
of families, of caregivers.
Whether they be men, women,
whether they're caring for children,
for elderly, for spouses.
I mean there is a tremendously broad range
of definitions of what being a caregiver means.
It just became so amplified during COVID.
And we stepped back, and we created Families@BCG.
The intent behind it was to open that aperture and say,
We can have so much bigger-picture thinking
around what it means to be a family
in BCG and how we can support our families
as they manage the impossible.
This is the unlock of what a progressive diversity, equity,
and inclusion strategy can really look like.
It means stepping back and really understanding
all of those critical contextual factors
and identities that make up who our employees are.
It means really trying to understand
where we have communities of people who might have
different practical things that they're trying to solve for
but those needs that underlie it, they share in common.
And it means really getting after
not just those functional solves,
but also helping people emotionally
as they move along their personal journeys.
This is what success can really look like.