Professor of Story Science, Angus Fletcher, joins Master Data Storyteller, Sam Knowles, to dig into narrative cognition, creativity, and innovation in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments. Drawing on Project Narrative (based at Ohio State University) and his book Primal Intelligence, Angus explains why logic is not reality, why adults struggle with intuition, and why the most effective stories and breakthroughs start with an anomaly. We explore intuition, imagination, emotion, and common sense as core human capabilities that enable us to outperform computational optimisation and AI when the world is changing fast and low on (reliable) data.

Angus shares lessons from U.S. Army Special Operations training and a NASA case study on empowering young engineers, showing how leaders can detect anomalies early, design new plans for new environments, and build cultures that reward creativity over certainty. If you care about decision making, leadership, AI vs human judgment, innovation strategy, and story science, this episode is for you.

Resources and links

• Project Narrative (Ohio State University) - https://projectnarrative.osu.edu/

• Primal Intelligence (Angus' 2025 bestselling book) - https://www.angusfletcher.co/

• Take the Data Storytelling Scorecard: https://data-storytelling.scoreapp.com