An Ohio State professor whose research has been called upon by the likes of Pixar, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and even the National Football League is being commended for his work in the service of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Angus Fletcher, Professor of Story Science at the Ohio State Project Narrative, was recently awarded the U.S. Army’s Public Service Commendation Medal for his ground-breaking research into the manner in which After Action Reports are drafted, in the wake of incidents in the field. Fletcher, whose background in neurophysiology led to a career analyzing how the human brain crafts narratives, has placed him at the vanguard of research into storytelling and creative thinking as it relates to education, business, filmmaking, athletics and the military, just to name a few.

“I was contacted by U.S. Army Command, who asked me to help develop training that would help soldiers be more creative and empower commanders and teams to be better thinkers,” says Fletcher. “When we think of creativity, we tend to think about art or new ideas – but creativity is really about ideation, brainstorming and divergent thinking. In this case, we wanted to give soldiers and their commanders the tools to problem-solve in the field.”

Fletcher says that over the course of months, the implementation of his training led to a 14-point increase in effective IQ of U.S. Army commanders. He says he worked hands-on with elite, special forces teams – as he describes them “top-tier units” – to test the effectiveness of new problem-solving strategies in the field.

Fletcher’s work also led to changes in the way the U.S. Army collects and writes After-Action Reports, reports that analyze the response to an incident, exercise or event by identifying strengths and potential areas of improvement. By helping to crystalize the ways in which those narratives are gathered, Fletcher says that the collected data can be better utilized to improve upon future training and strategy for the military and its members.

Fletcher said that he was surprised that the U.S. Army approached him, in the first place, about his work. And that he was even more honored to receive the commendation for “exceptionally meritorious performance.” The research that resulted in his award was later published in the Harvard Business Review and has gone on to affect directly affect training in areas as diverse as the business community and the FBI.

In addressing Fletcher’s work with the Army, Kenneth Long, an associate professor at the Command and General Staff College told Ohio State News, earlier this year, “We’re trying to make that cognitive shift to adaptive leadership … as opposed to just … knee-jerk reactions, so that causes us to look at foundational cognitive skills that all leaders need to have.”

Fletcher began his research into the neurophysiology of narrative at the University of Michigan, where one of the most crucial “a-ha moments” of his career would occur. He says that his research into narrative began with the realization that – despite popular conception – the brain should not be compared to a computer, when it comes to analytical thinking.

“The human brain naturally crafts complex stories. Sometimes the narrative concerns how to start a fire or how to build a boat. But the most complex human stories teach us how to live and love, how to maintain courage in the face of death, how to account for our existence. A computer can analyze data points and recognize patterns, but the brain can generate deeper insights that far exceed any artificial intelligence.”

Fletcher says that the human brain evolved to exist in two different kinds of environments. “There are environments that are stable and information rich. Computers work well in this situation. But there are also environments that are volatile and uncertain. This is where artificial intelligence falls far short of the capability of the human imagination.”

Fletcher says one of the cornerstones of his research is to encourage a sort of roleplay in the creative thinking process: “What would this person or that person do in this situation that’s different than what I might do? Thinking in this way can help us understand the mechanism under which an outcome occurs and narrow the sequence of steps that lead to the desired outcome.”

“If this sort of creativity generates something new to do or new to try, a new muscle movement, a new business plan, a new strategy – then it is providing one more tool for a successful outcome.”

While Fletcher’s work has garnered the attention of leaders in every field, especially the business community, Fletcher says his passion is applying his work to education and health care to help craft curriculum and improve outcomes for healthcare workers and patients, alike. “It has always been the case that the arts and humanities were where we trained students in improvisational thinking,” says Fletcher. “The present-day focus on standardized education is, in some ways, ensuring that everyone is assessed fairly and by the same rubric, but it is also producing thinkers who are all doing the same thing. We need to find a way to strike a balance.”

Fletcher said that those goals are embodied by his work with Project Narrative, as well. The program sponsored by the Department of English sponsors lectures, colloquia, and conferences at OSU, bringing specialists from all over the world to discuss developments in narrative theory. Fletcher is among 10 core faculty and over forty affiliated faculty from across the humanities and social sciences at the university that make up a panel of narrative scholars unparalleled anywhere else in the United States.

You can read more about Fletcher’s research into narrative and creativity in Wonderworks: Literary Invention and the Science of Stories, published by Swift Press in 2021.