Asians at McKinsey & Anise Health Collaboration
Asians at McKinsey (AAM) is an employee resource group which aims to empower colleagues of Asian backgrounds and shed light on topics related to Asians in business and society externally. As a voluntary, employee-led organization within a leading global management consulting firm, AAM in North America sought to foster a supportive and inclusive workplace environment and thus collaborated with Anise Health to empower members through a series of engaging, culturally-responsive and clinician-led programming.
The goals of the partnership included:
Raising awareness about mental health trends and cultural stressors prevalent in the Asian American community using both evidence-based research and storytelling.
Promoting cultural sensitivity among Asian-identifying professionals and non-Asian allies.
Providing tactical resources for diverse employees to flourish professionally and personally.
The opportunity
AAM leadership seized upon the chance to design holistic programming that would most benefit members while operating with limited resources.
First, AAM leaders expressed a desire to go deeper in understanding practical tools and skills-building techniques that integrated wellness practices for professionals in highly demanding careers.
Secondly, there was a strong need for culturally-responsive frameworks that acknowledged the nuanced intersectional identities of AAM members, which thus enabled advice to be personalized and actionable for members.
Thirdly, AAM leaders wanted to avoid offering standalone, disconnected events and instead strategically design the programming as a continuous sequence that solidified learnings and reflections for participants. This would also enable AAM members to uncover insights and begin making adjustments that felt more sustainable and authentic.
Finally, AAM leaders wanted to leverage feedback when tailoring the events, and thus reserved room to flexibly tweak plans as needed. This was especially true during the highly uncertain macroeconomic conditions in H2 2023, and because AAMs’ hundreds of members were distributed nationally across multiple time zones.
The solution
Asians at McKinsey and Anise Health designed and delivered four events that were facilitated by culturally-responsive mental health providers who also identified as Asian. Since Asian therapists and coaches led the events, AAM members were able to experience a diverse spectrum of styles and thought leadership among mental health professionals, allowing them to assess their own preferences in establishing a holistic health routine that fit their needs.
The first event was a foundational psychoeducational workshop titled Destigmatizing Mental Health for Asian Professionals, which was available to everyone regardless of identity. The session analyzed the consequences of unique stressors on people of Asian descent and unpacked how cultural values affected acculturative stress, burnout, intergenerational trauma, guilt, shame, and lack of boundary-setting. Questions were sourced from the audience in advance, and were addressed systematically during the question & answer session, such as:
What is a healthy way to balance our mental health needs (which seem like vulnerabilities) and the expectation of a high performer mindset (fake it ‘til you make it)?
How would I set boundaries with negative behavior in family members where prior therapists would encourage me to disengage from “toxic folks” in my life?
How can I find a therapist that can understand Asian household and culture struggles? I’ve tried approaches from “Western” therapists but they did not fit Asian traditions, home dynamics and culture.
How does my cultural background influence my mental health and how I can handle stress, perfectionism, and pressure to succeed better?
The second through fourth event was a “Real Talk” series focused on unpacking the intersection of professional performance and identity. This included a panel from tenured AAM colleagues to provide candid advice, small group discussions to break-down lingering discomfort and to connect with peers, and a goal-setting workshop.
In particular, the provider-led small group discussions exhibited remarkably honest and compassionate conversations. Participants covered topics ranging from immigration’s influence on one’s view of self and success, to debating how to respond to feedback which may conflict with one’s core values.
The impact
Asian Americans were certainly not immune to the mental health crisis, yet are far less likely to seek help for a wide range of reasons.
“We saw these challenges in our workplace and while there is a wealth of resources our company offers to colleagues, taking the first step is often the biggest hurdle to overcome–Do I even need help? How do I find the right resource? Will insurance pay? What do I even talk about? We started a dedicated workstream around trying to bridge this gap and improve the wellness of our members, but doing it alone was difficult. Anise Health was such an invaluable partner throughout, bringing incredibly thoughtful content and expertise around the wide range of common issues Asian Americans face with their mental health and more importantly, a deep understanding of how our identity shows up and affects our wellbeing. We rarely get opportunities to talk about such topics, both at work and outside of it, and I know many of our members walked away with a much deeper understanding of themselves and have hopefully taken the first few steps towards a lifelong journey of wellbeing.”
- Reflections from Richard Shin, mental health and wellness lead for McKinsey’s Asian employee resource group (ERG)