Meet the Exhibitor: Voice At The Table
One of the conversations we're looking forward to at the iCAN & Howlett Brown - The ERG Blueprint Conference 2026 is with Rina G Lynch, Founder and CEO of Voice At The Table, a consultancy specialising in diversity intelligence and inclusive decision-making. As a standholder and attendee on the day, Rina will bring a distinctive perspective on where ERG insight meets real organisational power. We caught up with her ahead of the conference to explore what it really takes to move inclusion from awareness into action.
Voice At The Table focuses on helping organisations make better decisions through diversity intelligence. What does that look like in practice for senior leaders?
That’s a great question. Simply put, it’s this: Most inclusion work focuses on awareness, helping leaders recognise bias, understand representation, and build empathy. That all has its place. That said, awareness alone doesn't hold under pressure. When a high-stakes decision is at hand and time is short, leaders revert to a pattern. The bias training doesn't travel with them into the room.
So, we do something that is different from raising awareness. We work right at the decision-making level itself — redesigning how decisions are made so that diverse perspectives are required before anything is finalised. Making ‘diversity intelligence’ a structural requirement. We use tools like the Thinking Environment® and our Decision Lens© framework to create the conditions where every voice carries genuine weight, and where the question "who's missing from this thinking?" becomes a standard part of the process, as a built-in check.
In practice, for senior leaders, it means they leave with something they can actually use in the room, in the moment. The capability holds when the pressure is real.
From your experience, where do organisations most often struggle when trying to embed inclusive thinking into leadership and decision-making?
The most common pattern I see is this: organisations invest in awareness and then wonder why nothing changes at the decision level.
The gap isn't knowledge. Most senior leaders I work with know what bias is. They know the research. They can describe it with fluency. The gap is skill, specifically, the skill of making clean decisions when bias shows up in real time, under pressure, with incomplete information and competing priorities.
The second struggle is structural. Even when individual leaders are genuinely committed, they're operating inside processes that don't require inclusive input. So, inclusion becomes dependent on individual courage, on someone remembering to ask or being willing to slow down when there's pressure to move fast. That's not infrastructure. That's hope.
Real embedding happens when you change the process, not just the mindset. To do so, we equip leaders with the tools they need to nudge them towards the use of diversity intelligence and inclusive design. This happens in the moment, and, with practice, it becomes part of the decision-making method.
ERG Blueprint is all about moving ERGs from activity to measurable impact. Where do you see ERGs playing a role in shaping better business decisions?
I honestly believe that ERGs carry something organisations genuinely need: direct access to the experience, insight, and perspective of people whose voices are often missing from the decisions that most affect them. That's not a soft resource. That's decision intelligence, and most organisations are leaving it on the table.
The shift from activity to impact occurs when ERG insights start reaching the decision-making level.
That requires two things: ERGs equipped to translate their insights into business language, and leaders equipped to genuinely receive them, not just listen to them, but let them shape what they decide. Both sides need capability. Most organisations only invest in one. And what a waste of a great resource that is…
What are you hoping to explore or take away from being part of the ERG Blueprint Conference, and what conversations are you most looking forward to having on the day?
The conversations I'm most looking forward to are the honest ones, the ones where ERG leaders name what's actually getting in the way, not just what they wish were different.
In my experience, the most useful question at any inclusion conference is What’s making a real impact?" I'm curious to hear where people have found genuine traction.
I'm also looking forward to connecting with people who are thinking strategically about ERGs, not just how to grow them or run better events, but how to position them as a serious source of business intelligence. That's the conversation I think is ready to happen, and ERG Blueprint feels like the right room for it.
If you’d like to continue this conversation in person? Rina will be at ERG Blueprint 2026 on 28th April at the Leonardo Royal Hotel, London. Visit their stand on the day to explore how diversity intelligence could transform decision-making in your organisation.
Be In the Room Where the Future of ERGs Is Being Shaped
The ERG landscape is changing fast. Expectations are higher, scrutiny is sharper, and the margin for impact without strategy is shrinking.
If you lead, sponsor, support, or influence ERGs, this is not a conversation you can afford to observe from the sidelines.
Join us at the ERG Blueprint Conference this April, where the people shaping the next chapter of ERGs will share what works, challenge outdated models, and raise the bar for impact.
Get in the room with ERG leaders, executive sponsors, culture strategists, and practitioners who are serious about moving ERGs from passion projects to strategic powerhouses.