Storytelling and your Brain at Work
I know I have said this before, but so much of my life has been spent fighting wars, sharing the love of Christ among those who have never heard, and as much as the first two, I am considered a raconteur. I love storytelling and have been around many excellent spinners of yarn. I really like David Rock’s book Your Brain at Work [1] as both a fiction and a non-fiction narrative about the brain and its neurological capacity and function. Dr. Rock does a great job of weaving his narrative together, presenting the lives of two fictional characters, Emily and Paul, both young professionals, parents, and husband and wife. He does a fantastic job teaching the reader about the brain’s capacity to function at extraordinary levels, but then he weaves a patchwork of evidence proposing a scenario about how people stretch their brains beyond their capacity.
Through his narrative of the lives of his protagonists, Emily and Paul, Dr. Rock demonstrates how the brain functions in a work environment, particularly regarding productivity, focus, and decision-making. Since it’s not a structured story, it doesn’t have what I would characterize as clear-cut protagonists and antagonists like a fictional tale would. However, we can easily, with a little bit of imagination, analyze the key figures metaphorically.
Dr. Rock’s Protagonist, in a sense, is the consumer of the story. The book assumes that the reader will use the lessons learned by the protagonists, Emily and Paul, to navigate the difficulties in our professional lives and apply neuroscience-based strategies to improve our performances as professionals, parents, and spouses. The Antagonist in his narrative is not a person but rather the daily trials that prevent optimal brain function, such as distractions, cognitive overload, stress, and inefficient thinking patterns. His Obstacle is how the human brain naturally operates under pressure—its tendency to be easily distracted, emotionally reactive, and energy-limited. Overcoming these natural tendencies by applying neuroscience-based strategies is the central conflict of the book.
Through Dr. Rock’s imaginative storytelling and neuroscientific prowess, he proposes a strategy to assist us in overcoming the limitations of our brain as our primary means of understanding reality. In his thesis, he presents the theory that the brain has a finite amount of cognitive energy for decision-making and coming to diagnostic conclusions. Interestingly, Dr. Rock puts to bed the myth of multi-tasking by the human. He develops the notion that using a deep thinking model is what we want to do. He demonstrates how focusing on one thing at a time leads to better end results. He highlights the role of emotions in fecundity and provides strategies for managing anxiety and remaining encouraged
Rock introduces this thinking framework, which includes Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness—key social drivers that impact workplace performance and interactions. He refers to it as the SCARF Model. Dr.Rock discusses a model called the SCARF Model to assist the reader in learning to reframe challenges faced both professionally and personally. He uses what is called mental reappraisal techniques, helping the thinker gain the ability to shift their perspective on complex tasks and reduce cognitive strain. His practices were elementary and precise.
My personal takeaways from this book are many. Personally, I have put to rest the notion that I am a good multitasker. I, as well as many that I know, have deluded ourselves for years into believing that we can handle many tasks at a time. Considering his arguments and the work of the NeuroLeadership Institute, I have succumbed to reason. I will now apply myself to deep thinking and singular focus in my decision and problem-solving. A survey [5] found 93% of people say they can multitask better than or as well as the average person. Along with its other downsides, multitasking appears to impair metacognition, our ability to monitor our own performance on a task. So, multitasking has the potential to reduce our performance while making us think we’re doing just fine
Lastly, Dr. Rock contributed to my thinking in the areas of reframing challenges as well as how much of a role emotions play in productivity and for managing stress. This will not be the last time I visit the neurological implications that the brain has in increasing daily productivity and competent decision-making.
[1] Rock, David. Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long. New York: Harper Business, 2009.
[2] Doidge, Norman. The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science. New York: Viking, 2007.
[3] NeuroLeadership Institute, The Myth of Multitasking, February 9, 2023, Written by NeuroLeadership Institute Staff, https://neuroleadership.com/your-brain-at-work/the-myth-of-multitasking
[4] ibid
[5] Wang Z., Tchernev J. M. (2012). The “myth” of media multitasking: Reciprocal dynamics of media multitasking, personal needs, and gratifications. Journal of Communication, 62, 493–513.
About the Author
David Weston
11 responses to “Storytelling and your Brain at Work”
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David- over the last few months I have seen you as a storyteller. I think that is one of the tools you use to disciple others? Is that right? If so then I love that Jesus obviously knew about the neurobiological power of story telling as he models it in his discipleship methods, which I expect is why I assume you are intentional about doing it too. We use story telling in trauma therapy because it causes connections between the right brain and left brain which then leads to revelation and insight. No other communication is quite as powerful.
I too had the new level of revelation about the negative impact of multi tasking!
Thank you, Betsy. Indeed, Jesus has been my singular model over the past 40 years of discipling. What I discovered when I began disciple-making cross-culturally was that Western learning models differed significantly from those of Central, South, and East Asia. What I found after looking more systematically at how our brothers and sisters globally learned is that they approach truth and reality within different paradigms. Westerners tend to approach truth through propositions. They ask what is the problem? Variables are measured, analyzed, and diagnosed, and a solution is proposed. In Eastern approaches to problem-solving, the propositional approach does not seem to cut through their cultural psyche. They respond much better to revelational truth. They want you to solve their problem for them, they want to hear a story, and then they can relate to the protagonist, antagonist, and obstacle in a manner that is much more familiar to them. They come to conclusions as they relate to the narrative in a way that they can relate to. Facts matter, but only as they contribute to the protagonist’s understanding of the obstacle. Thanks for causing me to think about this deeper. I am slow to respond as I am still working with only one arm, and the medicines are causing me to think somewhat deliriously.
Thank you David- that is interesting. Learning which takes place where both hemispheres of the brain are stimulated is meant to drive action naturally way more than purely cognitive learning that takes a long while to apply. The West needs to learn and light more fires to sit around and tell more stories.
Remarkable work with one arm- I am sorry the pain continues.
I love the sitting around the fire imagery. I realized years ago that learning to drink voluminous amounts of tea while sitting in low-hanging billows of smoke. I have often told my wife before going out that I was going to meet some neighbors and work on my second-hand smoke addiction and wash it down with pesticide. infested cottonseed oil. I have literally had hundreds of dinners that lasted well into the mornings, sitting and telling stories. One evening, I remember telling the Bible story to some genuine seekers that I started in Genesis at about 7 pm. I told the story until I finished with Revelations at about 4 am. We cried, laughed, and spoke of everything in God’s Word for hours. One of the best nights of my life.
David, a nice summary of the lessons from Dr. Rock. I also realized that multitasking on not that helpful of a skill after all and I will join you on the journey to unlearn old patterns and replace them with better strategies to manage information.
Thank you for that affirmation. This week, I have been developing a better, deeper thinking model, which is helping me focus better. I am using a SWOT-style matrix to better schedule my time. I am setting my priorities in boxes around what is more important, which gets me to the bottom line of my day. The key is to not try to combine everything together into one multi-task plan. So far, it is helping me, and I am tweaking my planner to suit my purposes within my thinking style. It feels much more organic than someone else’s personal daily planning model.
David, I agree that your background provides a wide range of opportunities to share stories positively and effectively with constituents. I enjoyed our discussions while walking around DC last fall.
Dr. Rock’s book highlights the aspects of multi-tasking that are helpful or worsen our daily effectiveness and efforts. When I reflect back to our time in the military, doesn’t that type of work lead to more of a multi-tasking approach? Understanding that there are moments when everyone around us gets a vote – environment, enemy, weather, etc – how would you anticipate pulling this apart?
Michael, I totally agree, and I am looking forward to walking through the streets of Capetown together to continue our conversations. I am much better at dialogue in person than I am on the internet!
Considering the military style of decision-making making, especially in light of so many lightning-fast variables coming at you incessantly and as officers, every decision had to be right. Otherwise, people died. Here is how I think we can process it. Think of the battles we fought as complex pieces of music. Each part of the battles we fought were a significant part of that orchestration. There were seasons of pianissimo. There were seasons of forte and others of fortissimo. The music could be described at times as allegro or brisk-paced. Other parts of the score could be largo, adagio, or lento. Never is a piece of music largo and allegro at the same time. Why, then, do we think our decision-making or thinking models can be multi-tasking?
I think the key for me has been to be able to move quickly from one variable to another, building on the previous musings but not allowing them to take up the same space on the score in my brain. I know Dr. Rock speaks to this in his book, but he left me feeling like there was more he wanted to say, considering the matter of jumping from one style or variable to another rapidly. It seems to me like a learned skill requiring years of practice to master.
I can’t stop being fascinated by your stories! Ited how you link really appreciaed storytelling with brain science, particularly the insight that multitasking might not be as beneficial as we think. I’ve always believed that those who can multitask are the most intelligent and capable, but I’ve found that it doesn’t always work out well for me. I’m curious, how has moving away from multitasking and embracing deep thinking influenced your daily decisions?
Ivan, I think you just hit the nail on the head. We lean heavily towards multitasking, not because it allows us to get our work done quicker, but we multi-task because this is what intelligent people do. So we make feeble attempt after feeble attempt to emulate alleged multitaskers because they are smart. We want to be smart, too.
David,
In your opinion, how can individuals in high-stress or demanding jobs effectively implement the SCARF Model when the external pressures such as tight deadlines and high stakes challenge their ability to focus on a single task?