After a 25+ year career in corporate America as a change agent and thought leader, Roslyn Rice was successful and…felt isolated. As a Black woman, it had been a lonely journey climbing the corporate ladder. So, in 2020, Roslyn and her twin sister, Renee, launched their own consulting firm focused on leadership training, business strategy and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEI&B) to help others feel that they have a voice at the table.
DPI, LLC stands for “Double Portion Inspiration,” something that Roslyn and Renee’s mother used to call them. While both women were frequently admired for being inspiring and encouraging in the corporate world, they recognized an opportunity to improve the culture of corporate America and support leaders who may feel excluded in their workplace. “We didn’t feel like we belonged. We really wanted to provide a grounding support for leaders. Leaders can be isolated because they make decisions in a silo. We wanted to help them thrive in the midst of ambiguity,” she says.
In addition to leadership training, DPI is also a valuable resource for businesses across many industries seeking to improve their DEI&B. Roslyn notes that they aim to go beyond compliance standards and expand the view of what diversity looks like. “The lens has expanded beyond just race. We have safe, trusting spaces where clients feel they can come to us,” Roslyn says. “That sets DPI apart—we’re not here to tell leaders they need to change and shame them. We come in with a different approach to talk about how every brain has a bias, to understand our constraints and our lived experience and to understand how we can challenge our assumptions.”
Roslyn also brings her expertise in DEI&B to NAWBO as the current co-president and the former DEI&B chair of the South Florida chapter. She helped to survey local members to understand what matters most to their community of women business owners. From there, she worked to ensure that all the chapter’s programming is diverse. “For us, it really goes beyond race. That becomes a lens that many people focus on, but we are more than just race,” she says. “We wanted to focus on size of business, dietary restrictions, geographical locations and more.”
The chapter has been incredibly responsive to members’ needs—from rotating meeting locations across diverse South Florida areas, to ensuring all dietary requirements are included when food is served. They have also created a hybrid model of in-person and virtual networking events, to allow more members the opportunity to engage in the chapter. The result? An 80 percent survey response rate that members feel they belong in the South Florida chapter.
But diversity isn’t just about creating a sense of belonging. Roslyn notes that DEI&B just makes smart business sense for all companies today. “We know that if you have higher engagement scores, you’re going to have stronger productivity, which will lead to higher revenue and lower turnover rates,” she says. In a nutshell: the cultural awareness of an organization directly affects the bottom line. “When you don’t just have diversity, but an inclusive environment, you can make stronger decisions. You make stronger decisions when you have more voices and perspectives at the table.”
Learn more about DPI here.
Learn more about Rosyln’s best-selling book, Power Of One: Finding Hope In The Midst Of Struggle, here.