Over the last few years, functional MRI testing has given researchers the ability to see inside the brain in real time. Now, according to this month’s Scientific American Mind, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have used jazz pianists to show that improvisation generates activity in the medial prefrontal cortex—the same area that lights up when people are storytelling.

It’s the first scientific evidence that backs what I’ve seen in practice and explored in my thesis: telling stories excites more and better creative ideas than working from facts or tasks. In fact, when you start with a story about personal creativity, people in brainstorming sessions generate more than twice as many ideas.

It also explains why charismatic leaders with visionary stories about change can inspire even huge corporations—those stories turn on the creativity in every person who hears them. Perhaps companies that want innovation throughout the ranks should invest more in finding and telling the right stories.