The Power of Narrative Intelligence. Enhancing your mind’s potential. The art of understanding, influencing and acting

The Power of Narrative Intelligence

Enhancing your mind’s potential. The art of understanding, influencing and acting

Arsen Avetisov

Translator Gregory Attaryan

Editor Gregory Attaryan

© Arsen Avetisov, 2024

© Gregory Attaryan, translation, 2024

ISBN 978-5-0064-5354-8

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Introduction

The book focuses on the role of human intelligence in the modern world; in particular, on the role of one of the most important, narrative, intelligence. The book allows the readers to take a fresh look at their previous experience and background, their present, and build up the desired future.

The work is compiled from the author’s most popular lectures and programmes on the development of intelligence, the role of intelligence in human behaviour and its use in business.

Recent discoveries in neurophysiology and anthropology, an unbiased view of the history and civilisation, have contributed to the emergence of new, more technological solutions in the development of and influence on personal behaviour.

Presenting the material in a vibrant and down-to-earth style, the author shares ways and methods to cultivate narrative intelligence, opening a world of opportunities for anyone. An original outlook on the phenomena of emerging crises and the anthropogenic factors shows the true causes of human decisions, actions, and behaviour. The described technique affects all levels of processes in human communities – from family and corporate to national.

The book is intended for entrepreneurs, business people, managers, CEOs, all those who want to be part of the equation a conscious person = a free person. For all those who want to understand, influence, act, and empower their minds.

About the Author by the Author

I am, by my first profession, a doctor. You can think about it as a mission, but to a greater extent, it is a way of life, an algorithm of thinking, true spirituality and practical cynicism at the same time.

Doctors mainly concentrate on the human being as a biological species, as an organisation of tissues, cells, and biochemical reactions. But when you watch a person think, dream, make decisions, and act, you come to the conclusion that he or she soberly combines a creator and a destroyer in one person. Exploring this contradiction is always incredibly interesting. And the profession is not important here.

As an entrepreneur, coach, management and human resources specialist, I have authored a dozen books and pioneered several innovative techniques. Throughout my two decades of career in senior positions, I have successfully applied these practices in actual business settings.

Acknowledgements

I often find myself thinking how lucky I am that the Lord has sent me on such an interesting journey. To say that I am grateful is equal to unconvincing silence. An amazing road with loyal companions: family, friends and sympathisers. They are so original and inimitably predictable that I feel as if I have met them in another life. Each of them has contributed to this book.

I am grateful to my parents for giving me the opportunity to fulfil my mission. An exceptional combination of genetic material in a special ratio and shape. Heaven knows best.

Many thanks to the patience and love of my spouse, who allowed me to deal consistently with both what I already have and what I can still create. Her love and care have been endlessly inspiring me to more and more creative deeds and achievements.

I appreciate the demanding efforts of my children, who have served as the best example for my ongoing development.

Special thanks to my editor and translator, who happens to be my old friend, for his witty comments and all-round skills.

Thanks to all my friends for their dedication, eternal values, emotions, sincerity, passion, optimism and musicality, which allow us to create in unison. They motivated me, inspired me, and opened up new horizons.

I also want to thank my homeland and all the countries I am connected with. The country where I was born and raised, the country where I got my first profession, met my love and where my children were born, the country where I found a new job, established myself as a specialist and person, the country where I live now. Thank you for your multitude and differences, as sources of historical responsibility and independence from your history.

I thank Him for not leaving us at all times.

Preface

No more secrets.

If you try, you have two options: it will work or it will not.

If you don’t try, there’s only one option.

We live in a difficult time of permanent revolutions. From colour to informational, when the colour ones themselves become the result of informational ones. We live in a world of marketing, a world of advertising, a world of small hopes and big disappointments. We are constantly talking about a revolution in our consciousness, which, frankly, turns out to be a revolution in the way we consume.

In 2006, Australian producer Rhonda Byrne published her book The Secret, which sold over 30 million copies and was made into a film. The author gives step-by-step instructions on how to use the secret. Knowing the secret helps those who possess it to create the happiest, most joyful and prosperous life. Collecting the statements of famous thinkers, scientists, inventors and philosophers, on topics from quantum physics to religion, the author sought everywhere confirmation of her ideas about the knowledge and power of the secret.

But is there a secret? Maybe we do not want to admit to ourselves that there is no secret? Throughout history, people have tried to shift their responsibility to their ignorance. It is enough just to study and accept ourselves as we are. Alive, with our own instincts and desires, carried away by fairy tales and stories, and then convincing ourselves and our surroundings of our own high mission. Perhaps, everything that we fill our lives with, the meanings we put in them, is only because we cannot admit either to ourselves or to others that we have come with a very simple mission – to live.

All our lives, we choose different models of our mission that best suit our abilities, circumstances, and what we have already thought up and believed in. There are big doubts about the latter because all this could have been thought up for us and presented to us in such a way that we took it for our own. And since we do not really know what we are made up of, how and why we believe, act, think and want, it is quite easy to deal with us and easy to use us too. For example, to invent secrets and then to share them.

However, today humanity has accumulated enough knowledge about everything and everyone. There are no more secrets. All that remains is to talk about what really shapes our thinking, desires, and behaviour. Our talents and abilities are just tools for survival. Everything else that has been invented is beautiful packaging and presentation.

We have long been mistaken about everything. What we are here for, what we want, and what we do. We have not realised that all those who influence us are skilfully created programmes made up of words, emotions, and ideas that, if they contain a part of the real world, then in no less proportion they contain the interests and goals of those around us.

How our consciousness works, how our behaviour is formed, how we learn and choose a job, how can we be convinced of anything, and how are we programmed? And, most importantly, how can all this be changed? How can we make the secrets of our intelligence become an everyday tool for us, a familiar technology, a proven recipe for a unique process called life? Because life is worth it. With this knowledge, we can finally fill most of our lives with the happiness and prosperity we deserve.

Allow yourself to take the first step on an inspiring journey in which we will discover the immense power of our minds and learn how to use it to build meaningful and fulfilling lives. Join us on our quest to explore the secrets of consciousness, understand how our thoughts and behaviour are shaped, and discover practical tools and techniques for achieving your goals, aspirations, and building a life worth living.

Multiple Intelligences and One Life

How we survived and how much              intelligence a person has.

Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman, but believing

what he read made him mad. ― George Bernard Shaw

Thanks to what abilities have humans survived on the Earth? Not only have we survived, but our population has reached more than 8 billion individuals and continues to grow. How, lacking claws, fangs, and thick skin, unable to fly or climb trees, have humans taken over the entire world of living beings that inhabit the planet? However, for the sake of justice, it should be noted that the most numerous vertebrates on the planet are chickens, with more than 30 billion of them, solely with the permission and thanks to humans.

The only organ that has helped humans compete for survival is the brain. It turned out to be sharper than fangs and claws, more resourceful, and humans have something to counteract the brute and superior strength and agility of the surrounding mammals – their intelligence. People still wonder: How and why did the transformation of nervous tissue into grey thinking matter happen at the end of evolution? And so far, there is no consensus, just hypotheses.

Perhaps when the most curious of the apes climbed down from the trees and began to walk on two limbs, this freed up their upper limbs. The proponents of the theory of evolution argue that the autonomy of the upper limbs contributed to the ability to engage in active work. Labour, allegedly, made a man out of an ape, as the founders of Marxism also claimed. But today, having free hands does not necessarily contribute to active work, or they are not used in the way intended at the beginning of the journey. All this is a little alarming about the prospects for further human evolution.

There is another hypothesis that walking on two limbs contributed to the increase in blood flow to the brain. Since moving on four legs requires more energy and increased blood flow to them, moving on two legs made it possible to redistribute blood flow more effectively and significantly increase the ability to supply the brain with energy for thinking.

The brain uses an amazing amount of energy for its work, and a constant and sufficient blood flow not only has led to the supply of energy to the brain, but also, accordingly, has delivered more biological building matter, which also contributed to its anatomical development. Ultimately, humans possess the highest brain-to-body weight ratio among mammals. To be fair, it should be noted that the ratio is almost the same in mice, thus the surface area of the cerebral cortex is crucial.

Due to the need for constant energy replenishment, the life of primitive man consisted of endless movements, aimed at finding and supplying the body with calories for both physical activities and mental processes. The surrounding world was full of ill-wishers and competitors. But man did not become an intermediate link in the food chain for the surrounding species. The brain allowed him to create weapons for defence and attack, to subordinate his movement to strategy, to consider circumstances and plan changes, to form up in battle order or to retreat in an organised manner. And not only that.

The term intelligence comes from the Latin language and means understanding. This term refers not only to the general abilities of a person to know and understand, but also to the ability to solve problems, achieve goals, and everything that is currently associated with the effectiveness and success of an individual.

In the process of intelligence research, numerous tests have been developed to assess human intelligence. The most well-known among them is the IQ (intelligence quotient). It includes such abilities as goal setting, planning, developing strategies, learning, and applying abstract concepts. Today, it is obvious that this indicator does not fully describe the capabilities of an individual, let alone their implementation in life. Success in life, just like the scores you receive on the test itself, depends on many other factors. Even on nutrition: in developing countries, the introduction of dietary supplements with iodine helped raise IQ. What can be said for sure is that IQ tests demonstrate the ability to pass these very tests.

Continuing their research, scientists and theorists came to the conclusion that describing just one type of intelligence is not enough to understand the whole picture of the brain’s capabilities. A theory of multiple intelligences, with almost a dozen different kinds of intelligences, has been suggested. Depending on which functional quality is more developed in a person, that type of intelligence dominates the personality. Consequently, the use and development of this particular type of intelligence simplifies the realisation of the individual in the appropriate professional environment.

The founder of this theory is Howard Gardner, who proposed a line of six types of intelligence. Later, this line was expanded. Among the intelligences are: linguistic – an expressed ability to write or speak a language, logical-mathematical – the ability to remember and operate with numbers, musical – the ability to understand, feel and handle rhythms and timbres, visual-spatial – showing the ability to navigate in space, and also naturalistic, kinaesthetic, social, personal. Probably, with the expansion of forms of employment and areas of human activity, we can expect an increase in the number of these types. But, regardless of what domain a person is engaged in, there are some abilities that are necessary every day and on which one’s life and fate really depend.

The first is intelligence itself, scored in IQ: to perceive, understand, remember, reflect, plan, and solve problems.

The second is emotional intelligence (EI), a.k.a. emotional quotient (EQ): the ability to understand and manage your own and other people’s emotions while solving problems.

The third is narrative intelligence (NI): a set of abilities to determine and understand your own and other people’s behaviour, to influence it while solving problems.

Most of the knowledge, research, and literature exists on intelligence and IQ, to a lesser extent – on EQ, and scattered and non-systematic information – on NI. The latter, possibly, because most people benefit from the formula: ‘He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.’

EQ: Who Controls Emotions, Controls the World

Why is emotional intelligence so                      important for business?

Just as the mode of the rational mind is words, the mode

of the emotions is nonverbal. ― Daniel Goleman

A famous businessman once joked that we use emotional intelligence when, if it is impossible to sell, there is at least an opportunity to seduce. But seriously, the peculiarity of this intelligence lies in the very definition of emotion.

Emotion is a mental process that shows our subjective evaluation of the present or possible situation. The key word in this definition is 'subjective’. Many of us sometimes confuse the concepts of feeling and emotion. Feeling is a combination of thought and emotion, and even something more than their wordless compound.

The use of emotions to actively influence the environment, in its essence, is an irrational influence. But, on the other hand, it is efficient, clear, and does not require developing complex algorithms, in-depth analysis, or calculations. Often a single glance conveys more information than a few hundred words or a string of numbers.

The fact is that working with the rational part of consciousness, conclusions, along with clarity and logic, has, accordingly, a downside. Such processes, due to their linearity and consistency, are extremely slow. The quality of results of such intellectual work depends on many factors, both innate and acquired, including vocabulary, education, and upbringing. Therefore, thought can be compared to the strategy of a certain general staff, and emotion can be compared to tactics directly on the front line.

We are convinced: in order to manage something, it is necessary to control something. Control is understanding of what is happening and what needs to be done to make something different happen. We strive to control everything we can imagine and measure. But the fact is that such a rational approach to controlling the irrational, in this case emotions, has its own peculiarities.

The task of emotional intelligence is not to indulge in control, in the usual sense of this process, but to focus on understanding the experience. In order to be aware of emotions, they must initially be felt, experienced, but this does not imply following them. We need to follow our goals and needs, which often diverge from the direction that our emotions show us. Either we control our emotions, or they control us.

Using emotional intelligence allows you to purposefully influence and draw attention to what it is necessary for. The amount of information that enters the brain through all channels in one second is approximately 11 million bits. Mental activity processes only about 50 bits. Because there is so much incoming information, we focus on the main things, and many reactions or decisions are executed in the background of the brain. In turn, the brain itself, in order to create a representative image for us, gets rid of more incoming data and uses data that is already available and exists in it. And in this competition of priorities, only emotions indicate to us what is really worth paying attention to, which contributes to the consolidation of incoming information in memory.

We believe that emotions focus our attention on things or events that are our priority. But emotions are just as likely to focus attention on the priorities that are presented to us by our surroundings. Through emotions, bypassing rational consciousness, we have access to more ancient brain structures. This allows us to control our behaviour by paying attention to how desires emerge. And this gives an opportunity to influence the behaviour of a person as a consumer. Who owns the attention, owns the market. Who owns the market, owns the world. Through attention, we can control the world. Attention is capitalised.

The use of emotional impact in economics explains the well-known mantra: ‘If you take enough of nothing, you will get something in the end.’ Emotions are the tangible ‘nothing’ that can be turned into a real ‘something’.

Narrative Intelligence, Your Personal Secret Advisor

How narrative intelligence affects behaviour          and why life is a constantly changing          narrative.

Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories. ― Alan Kay

According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, the system of concepts that exists in a person’s mind, and therefore in his or her thoughts, is determined by their language. Our behaviour, in the end, is a sequence of our actions in relation to the world around us. It is a kind of programme that we follow under certain circumstances.

These programmes are executed through their internal interpretation. We remember such interpretations and accept them as necessary responses and sequences of actions for certain circumstances or tasks. Every time we retell this algorithm of actions to ourselves, we reinforce it so much that we do not notice or pay attention to it. We can equally follow the algorithms that our surroundings have interpreted for us. These programmes are our internal executive narratives.

Let us explain this using a simple illustration. Answering the question ‘How do you cook scrambled eggs?’ respondents tell us what they need, in what quantity, what they do and in which particular order. They give comments – why exactly this or that ingredient, in this or that sequence – and, finally, describe the result, in which they explain the significance of each action. Some respondents may note the differences between their own cooking preferences and the generally accepted ones.

All this sequence of actions and the purpose of each stage, as well as the ingredients of the dish, are not improvisation. People tell exactly what they had done many times before. And if you wake them up at night and ask them to cook scrambled eggs – they will do them just that way.

But what we are interested in lies elsewhere. There are always those who have never cooked scrambled eggs, but they, although in a simpler way, will tell you how to prepare the dish. Without lengthy gastronomic comments and interpretations of culinary secrets, but they will tell you.

There are hundreds of thousands of such sequences of actions that lead to the desired result stored in our memory. And they are not about scrambled eggs at all. ‘What to do when…’ or ‘What to think about when…’ and so on. When some circumstances change and lead to others, the brain determines this, associates it with similar ones, and selects the most appropriate programme of actions from the existing ones.

If you are hungry, you make scrambled eggs, if it is raining, you take an umbrella, if the boss shouts at you, you duck your head. The brain uses ready-made programmes and does not create new ones. Why is that? Because it saves energy, and this will be discussed further.

The sequence in presenting facts, events, and actions, as in the case of scrambled eggs, which has its cause and result, or its meaning – is a narrative.

The term ‘narrative’ (from the Latin narrare – to tell a story) in a general sense refers to the description of interrelated events in the form of a sequence of words or images, or both. The term was first introduced in historiography and, in particular, in the concept of the so-called ‘narrative history’. It considers historical events not as a result of the conformity to natural laws, but in the context of their description and in conjunction with their interpretation.

Contexts and interpretations are very important since they express the fundamental idea of this approach – they can be used to bring subjective meaning to the statement, to insert in the narrative something that, without distorting the facts and actions, can radically change their perception.

You should distinguish between narrative and story. A story is a sequence of events based on the actions of characters. There is always a plot in it. Narrative is a way of telling this story and includes the story itself.

Recently, the term ‘narrative’ has acquired an additional meaning – ‘a statement that contains a world view or prescription’. To paraphrase, this is a programmed action that is determined by some strategic meaning.

Narrative bias, literally meaning 'distortion of the story’, is a human tendency to link together information from different sources and establish cause-and-effect relationships. An innate human need is to give everything consistency, regardless of whether the resulting story corresponds to reality or not.

With the help of such stories, a person can organise their own experience, which is a description of their activity, and fill all this activity with meaning. The way a person builds and organises their narratives gives an idea of what behaviour they prefer and how they see this world and their life.

It is easier for us to perceive our own life according to the laws of the plot. Because life ‘by itself’ does not exist. Since childhood, we form ideas of the world based on the stories told by people who are important to us. Step by step, we imitate, learn, and build our world view, our library of narratives. And this is a very important ability – by retelling narratives, to determine the goals and meanings behind events, as well as another one – to change them and create new ones.