Storytelling and Primal Intelligence with Angus Fletcher

In this episode of The Leadership Initiative, Angus Fletcher explores the connection between storytelling and primal intelligence, revealing how leaders can harness narrative, curiosity, and imagination to drive innovation, engagement, and human-centered leadership. 

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Host, Jen Knox Shanahan:  

"...Can you tell us a little bit about Primal Intelligence?” 

Guest, Angus Fletcher: 

"...Primal Intelligence is...the intelligence of your primal brain. So your brain evolved about 500 million years ago, a little bit more than that, or at least the archaic neuron did, and what the world was characterized back then was enormous volatility and uncertainty. There was sort of a huge explosion of life forms at that time, and they were all competing with each other for the same resources. They were also trying not to get eaten by each other, and so our brain developed this capacity, the neuron developed this capacity to be intelligent in these fast-changing, dynamic, murky environments. And the reason that's significant is because that's intelligence that computers and AI cannot have. Computers and AI get intelligence the more data you give them and the more kind of transparent and stable an environment is, but when an environment is changing very quickly, when there's not a lot to go on, you need to sort of tap into these other parts of intelligence. 

And unfortunately, we've created a school system that's focused almost entirely on logical, rational, computational forms of intelligence, and we spend almost no time at all even trying to understand this other part of the brain. And I think that's one of the reasons why young people are having such a hard time nowadays, struggling with uncertainty, struggling with volatility. I think a lot of adults also get incredibly anxious and stressed at the idea that things might be changing. And if you talk to people, they immediately say, well, volatility is bad, and change is bad. And I always say, well, actually, no, it's natural...Actually, that's the way that life is, and we evolved to handle that.”

Angus Fletcher is a Professor and co-Director of the Fisher College of Business Leadership Initiative at the Ohio State University. His research has been called “mind blowing” by Malcolm Gladwell and “life changing” by Brene Brown and has been endorsed by neuroscientists, psychologists, and doctors such as Antonio Damasio, Martin Seligman, and Rita Charon. In 2023, he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for “groundbreaking” leadership training. He has first-authored roughly 100 articles and book chapters on Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, and others.