Bringing Behavioural Data to Life

From psychometric reports gathering dust in drawers to interactive learning in the palm of people’s hands

 
For years Lumina Learning CEO and Founder, Dr Stewart Desson often saw the rich data that organisations needed for behavioural change trapped in lengthy PowerPoint slides and PDFs gathering dust in people’s drawers, failing to truly bring the data to life in a way that gives people, teams and leaders practical clarity to act on.

To Stewart, the answer wasn’t to remove the depth and nuance of data where the greatest opportunities to develop high-performing behaviours sit. Instead, he wanted to improve the way all that nuanced behavioural data is positioned. He knew that for people to truly understand the potential of their behaviour and ability to adapt, he needed to create an interactive way to take the practical insights off the page.

“I wanted to put personality in the palm of people’s hands, and ultimately in their heads” Stewart says. “I knew that people needed to have great learning experiences to help them reflect on their behaviour and enable conversations about how they might work together.”

In 2015, that vision become a reality with the creation of the Lumina Splash app that now sits in the hands of thousands of leaders, teams and organisations worldwide.

We sat down with Dr Stewart Desson to revisit the vision behind the app that raised the bar for easy-to-deliver, highly engaging interactive learning that keeps development going in the workplace.

Blending behavioural data with a humanistic approach

The journey to the Lumina Splash app began decades before Lumina Learning existed. In Stewart’s early career, he built decision support systems for logistics and finance operations to help organisations make better choices. When he later moved into psychometry with the creation of Lumina Spark, he recognised an opportunity to do the same, but this time for people.

“The app is a decision support system for human beings, helping us make better decisions about how we work and connect with each other”

By taking the validated data of Lumina Spark and presenting it in a memorable, interactive way, the Lumina Splash app helped Stewart transform psychometrics from a static report into a shared experience. With the app, teams and leaders don’t just receive information about their behaviour; they can playfully explore how their behaviour shapes their performance with an animated visual of their style that is easy to understand, share and discuss as a team.

That blend of rigorous behavioural data with a humanistic approach of Lumina Spark’s digital suite means organisations can offer evidence-based data without overwhelming people with statistics, giving teams and leaders either a self-led or practitioner-led personalised experience that helps them apply what they’ve learned straight away.

“We’ve built the science into the background, so learners don’t have to think about it. What they experience is a tool that’s genuinely useful”

Turning personality data into dialogue with easy-to-deliver activities

Creating the Lumina Splash app was more than an innovative step forward in digital coaching and development. Stewart and his team recognised the frustration of talent professionals not having the time to go beyond surface-level learning into the transformational conversations that led to lasting organisational change.

With the Lumina Splash app, instead of asking people to wade through pages of information that drains time, practitioners can go from talking about behaviour to having it come to life on people’s phones.

“The app is an ROI multiplier because it enables you to get to learning points quicker and supports teams and leaders to embed learning straight away”

Within minutes, leaders and teams have a go-to mirror to reflect on their strengths and opportunities to adapt with an animated version of their personality that morphs between their effective and ineffective behaviour. “The meta-message is that your personality isn’t fixed. It’s dynamic, morphing, alive,” says Stewart.

The features are designed to help get teams and leaders talking and quickly connecting with a common language to understand their behaviour together. For example, with Share and Compare, two people can pinpoint their potential to work better together by overlaying their similarities and differences. This helps them see where their styles may complement or clash, opening conversations with shared clarity on how to adapt their behaviour to work more effectively together.

Bringing learning back into the workplace

Another challenge Stewart observed in organisations was how quickly learning faded once people returned to work. The insights from even the most engaging sessions were often forgotten when real-world pressures took over.
 
He wanted to change that by helping people remember and apply what they learned when it mattered most. With the app, teams and leaders have a go-to space to continuously explore their strengths and areas for development to help them adapt, collaborate and perform more effectively, turning a one-off workshop into an ongoing journey of reflection and growth.

“It creates a habit of reflection and a common language that can be carried back into the workplace, becoming a catalyst for ongoing organisational learning.”

For talent leaders, that means embedding learning and behavioural change directly into the flow of work, ensuring that learning doesn’t just inspire people for a moment, but transforms how they adapt and work together for the long term.

10 years of bringing personality to life

Looking back at the journey from 2015, one of Stewart’s favourite surprises is how people love the experience from the app so much that they often share it with their families and friends, opening conversations about adapting behaviour and connecting better both at home and at work.

Now, 10 years since the app launched and with thousands of teams and leaders using it to continuously learn how to adapt their behaviour and work better with others, it’s getting a fresh new look and feel on 10 November.

Keeping everything teams and leaders already love about the app, the upgraded experience makes it smoother, smarter and easier to use for more impactful learning sessions that get everyone instantly engaged and talking.

Discover why 1,000,000+ people, teams and leaders love to learn with the Lumina Splash app

Create a Taster Splash for yourself to experience psychometrics done differently. Download the Lumina Splash app from the Google Play Store or App Store now.

Dr Stewart Desson

Founder & CEO, Lumina Learning
Business Psychologist, Creator of the Lumina Spark psychometric.
 
Stewart is a leading expert in psychometrics and organisational development. Through Lumina Spark, he developed an innovative way to reduce the bias often found in traditional personality models by combining rigorous data with a humanistic approach. His work focuses on helping organisations grow through improved self-awareness, communication, leadership, and team effectiveness.