Celebrating my first year at McKinsey, I am looking back. It all started with recruiting, a process I found challenging and rewarding. I met many firm leaders who gave me the space to share my vision, showcase my skills, and bring my true self to the conversations.
I am a lesbian, immigrant, non-religious, non-European woman who lives in Europe. My identity is at the intersection of some privileged and some discriminated groups. This complexity helps me look at my life and my path with pride, with empathy for others and with the conviction that being visible is the best way to be true to myself and to support others in their struggles.
Why McKinsey?
I’ve learned the only way to feel empowered and give my best is to be part of teams where each member’s identity is an inspiration and never a blocker. McKinsey people subscribe to this philosophy.
Why Equal at McKinsey?
To support others and bond with likeminded people, I joined Equal at McKinsey, McKinsey’s global LGBTQ+ network. All new hires to the firm are introduced to Equal at McKinsey during onboarding. I signed up one second after I heard about the group, to support LGBTQ+ people inside and outside of McKinsey.
As a Equal at McKinsey member, I’ve participated in several events to empower professionals to be out at work. For example events with young professionals in different parts of the world with a variety of contexts and challenges to be themselves at work or even at life. The project closest to my heart is a pro-bono initiative where I work with other Equal at McKinsey colleagues to create concrete change in people’s lives, especially LGBTQ+. It’s great that McKinsey gives us days outside of our normal work to put time into this type of service.
I also made championing diversity, equity and inclusion part of my mission in life and I use every platform available to raise the topic and encourage self reflection and most importantly action. That was one of my motivations some weeks ago when I had the opportunity to give a conference talk at 2021 DesignOps Global Conference about the Power of Design Leadership and Diversity to drive Innovation.
Valuing Intersectionality
I was pleased to discover McKinsey’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is not only demonstrated in our affinity groups. For example, annually we hold Values Days to reflect on our success in living our purpose, mission and values. Last year, the German office had colleagues actively engaging diversity, equity and inclusion topics and encouraged to asses themselves on topics connected with bias, privilege, oppression and allyship. I saw this as a great sign of the commitment the firm has to create space for reflection about intersectionality in ourselves and the work that we do.
About Mariel:
I am a Lead Service Designer for the VG&Media Service Design and Innovation Department. I am based in Berlin.
My job is to lead interdisciplinary global teams to design experiences and the mechanics in business to create these experiences. I develop the vision, strategy and framework which align the team and the stakeholders towards an agile north star. In the front-stage, I strive to discover the value for users and co-design meaningful products and services placing them and the impact on the business on the center. In the back-stage, I co-create transformation programs which include communication strategies, events, rituals, training and optimized tools to foster employee engagement and cultural change.
Before I came to McKinsey, I worked as a consultant specializing in service design, cultural and digital transformation in projects with many different clients including a global bank, electro mobility companies, some global consumer products companies and many startups.