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Executive Education
Unlocking Leadership Potential through Neuroscience and Narrative Re-Cognition

Empathy. Vision. Courage. Imagination. Communication. Intuition. Anticipation.
These are core attributes of successful leaders. And for generations they have been considered “soft” skills that a leader must either be born with—or acquire haphazardly through experience. But at Ohio State, groundbreaking research has uncovered the hard facts of how to train leaders to develop and fine-tune these skills. And crucially, we have developed—and scientifically proven—new methods for unlocking leaders’ brains so that they can access these skills authentically.
At the core of these methods is a technique known as narrative re-cognition; or said another way, changing the stories you tell yourself. Tell yourself one story about where you came from and where you’re going, and it can make you curious, caring, and resilient. Tell yourself another, and it can make you inflexible, self-centered, and quick to anger.
Our team will help your team develop the mental narratives to unlock their deep leadership potential. We will also help your team members find their individual stories, so that they don’t just lead—they lead in their own unique way, maximizing their personal abilities and bringing the complete wealth of their special psychology to your organization.
Our innovative training is based in cutting-edge neuroscience, forged in partnership with teams at US Army Special Operations, published in 2022 articles in Harvard Business Review and New York Academy of Sciences and Modern Warfare Institute.
At the conclusion of the program you will be able:
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To understand the psychological processes that drive core leadership skills such as empathy, vision, courage, and imagination
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To learn how to bolster and increase those processes, improving performance
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To discover why a common sign of a leadership glitch is communication breakdown—and how successful leaders communicate authentically, in their own unique way
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To understand the importance of consistency, consistency, consistency of action.
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To explore the learning cycle of push to failure, narrative reflection, and personal growth
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To discover how to maximize your brain’s natural ability to risk-take intelligently
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To learn the difference between emotional resilience and cognitive resilience, and how to use each to strengthen the other
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To learn how to rebound from setbacks and failure, maintaining initiative and intelligent risk-taking
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To learn how to boost your mental agility, allowing you to pivot strategy faster in response to emergent challenges and opportunities
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To learn how to live simultaneously in multiple futures, maximizing your strategic prospects
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Value for Individual
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Explore your personal narrative to give you insight into why you act the way you do, so that you can lead more authentically and ultimately more effectively.
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Practice how to listen deeply, thus empowering and motivating those around you.
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Learn how to recognize when your leadership is falling short and how to respond.
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Learn how to embrace failure as a productive road to discovery and growth.
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Strengthen your emotional resilience with reflection on past accomplishments and communication skills that help effectively motivate and guide teams.
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Discover the power of smallest changes for the biggest impacts.
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Value for Company
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Your organization’s leaders will know how to anticipate team breakdown before it happens and correct course for continued success.
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By building trust within a team, leaders will have time to anticipate the future and prepare for the unexpected.
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Your leaders will improve their teams focus on their missions.
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Your leaders will stretch their creativity muscles to become more resilient, more able to spot exceptional information, and have a less egotistical mindset.
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Your leaders will discover tools to use to manage uncertainty.
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Program Details
Delivery Method | Two full days, on campus |
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Program dates |
Summer 2023: July 18 - 19, 2023 |
Information Sessions | TBD |
Cost |
$2,350 per participant Promotions and Available Discounts
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Prospective Participant Profile |
This unique curriculum offers invaluable advice on leading and influencing others in the workplace. Executives and managers of all experience levels will benefit from its interactive sessions that provide useful frameworks for mastering leadership skills. |
Registration Deadline | June 30, 2023 |
Registration |
Our Faculty
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Angus Fletcher
Angus Fletcher (PhD, Yale) has dual degrees in neuroscience and narrative theory. He is the pioneer of story science, which explores the neuroscience of how the narratives we tell ourselves can shift our performance, increasing creativity, curiosity, empathy, and other psychological skills. His work has been called "mind-blowing" by Malcolm Gladwell and "polymathic" by Martin Seligman and has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and others. His most recent books are Wonderworks (Simon and Schuster, 2021), Storythinking (Columbia University Press, 2023), and A New Humanities (Princeton University Press, 2024).
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Sarah Lagrotteria
Sarah Lagrotteria (MA, Stanford) is the head educator at Just Bloom School and offers her workshops through the Executive Education at the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. Sarah and her business partner, Dr. Angus Fletcher (PhD, Yale), pioneer Fletcher's original narrative theory of creativity. Based in neuroscience, their Storythinking method activates deep brain thinking to unleash human potential, boosting empathy, emotional intelligence, psychological resilience, creativity, optimism and innovation.
Their training has been tested in published, peer-reviewed scientific trials run at the US military with partners in Army Special Operations, as well as in scientific trials run with Worthington Schools on elementary school children. The foundation for their workshops are detailed in Creative Thinking: A Field Guide to Building Your Strategic Core a handbook Dr. Fletcher wrote for the US Army Command and General Staff College. Their work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Women's Health Magazine and Inc. Magazine.
Sarah has founded three diverse companies, and in 2019, was honored as one of 50 women nationwide to receive the Tory Burch Foundation Fellowship for women in business. Sarah studied story and narrative theory at Stanford. Her story expertise and her entrepreneurial heart make her passionate about the impact their Storythinking method has on other educators, business owners, and industry leaders.
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Cancellation/ Transfer Policy
All cancellations and transfers must be received in writing. Submit your request via email to Jennie McAndrew at mcandrew.28@osu.edu with the name of the program, followed by “cancellation” or “transfer” in the subject line.
- Cancellations must be made at least thirty (30) days prior to the first day of the program in order to be eligible for a full refund.
- Cancellations must be made at least fourteen (14) days prior to the first day of the program in order to be eligible for a 50% refund.
- Any cancellations made less than fourteen (14) days prior to the first day of the program will forfeit the registration fee.
- If you for any reason are unable to attend the program, please consider sending someone in your place. Participants can transfer their registration to someone else within their organization at no charge up to 24 hours before the first day of the program.
Contact Us
Jennie McAndrew
Education Program Senior Specialist, Executive Education
©2023 Fisher College of Business
2100 Neil Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210