How to Achieve Diversity 2.0

“How to Achieve Diversity 2.0”
Globe Street – Oct 5, 2018

Robert Rodriguez, Ph.D., is of Mexican descent, but as a child growing up in Minnesota, he struggled to fit in. When he joined the workforce years later, his mentors told him: “Don’t do that Latino thing. You don’t want folks to think you were hired because of affirmative action.” “When I was at home, I was dancing salsa, but when I went to work, I left that behind,” said Rodriguez, president of Chicago-based DRR Advisors, a management and diversity consulting firm. He didn’t feel connected to his employers. It was only when Rodriguez decided to embrace his heritage and leverage it as an asset that it became a source of strength for him—and his career took off. Rodriguez told that story to an audience attending a diversity session at the 2018 IREM Global Summit, held Sept. 26-29 in Hollywood.