Executives can now think like innovators, thanks to a new type of learning tool – the Data Wheel.

Many organisations create, commission or purchase costly but valuable reports. Yet their value can be lost merely because of competing demands for employee attention.

Made by Volute, the Data Wheel reduces the chances of this happening. It’s a dynamic visualisation that liberates relevant data from big data reports, allowing a user to filter just the right information at just the right moment when this information is of value.

FT | IE Business School Corporate Learning Alliance approached Volute to build its vision for the Data Wheel because it was searching for an interactive visualisation tool to enable employees in its client companies to discover key information on which to act.

Recognising that innovation is a key by-product of a company’s culture, FT | IE Corporate Learning Alliance, which develops customised executive education programmes for its global clients, needs to know – for each client – the scale of that client’s appetite to innovate.

Some diagnostic questions might include: How does a company deal with new ideas? Do processes exist for staff to generate new ideas? Do employees understand how to acquire funding for these?

According to FT | IE Corporate Learning Alliance, it needed a way to make data-rich reports come alive for each user, filtering exactly the right information at just the right moment. So, it bought a measurement tool called Innovation Survey (InnoQuotient) from Dicere Global.

InnoQuotient, which measures a company’s culture for invention, is based on research by Dr Jay Rao of the entrepreneurial business school, Babson College. By surveying employees, InnoQuotient provides:

• an Innovation Index score
• a benchmark score against similar industries
• a detailed mapping by a variety of factors

FT | IE Corporate Learning Alliance realised that, for its clients to improve their innovation culture and allow ideas to flourish, it needed to find a way to make the InnoQuotient report’s extensive data ‘come alive’ for each user.

One of the problems with big data is that it’s ‘big’, which makes the interesting bits hard to spot. So, to turn the useful data into actions that lead to business improvements, FT | IE Corporate Learning Alliance aims to help increase its clients’ likelihood of innovation by deploying both InnoQuotient and the Data Wheel.

Volute learning activities are a combination of diverse learning tools, like the Data Wheel, that foster experiential, applied and active learning. This allows FT | IE Corporate Learning Alliance to create activities that require learners / employees to use the Data Wheel to craft a unique action plan.

Volute is a new EdTech option that is pioneering digital learning with a global network of smart, connected learning tools. The network is a new education sharing economy where thought leaders publish their unique L&D methods as interactive tools for digital learning.