SCARF down your brain

By Jason Lim

This is the second part of my two part column on the neuroscience behind change. In the first column, I spoke about how the brain sees every new situation in black and white: will this help or hurt my survival? In other words, will this kill me or help me live? Threat vs. Reward is the fundamental organizing principle of the human brain.

The tricky part of change is that it’s automatically perceived by the brain as a threat because it presents the brain with a different “pattern” from the one that it is familiar with. And depending on the degree of change and the person’s prior experience with change (usually bad), the threat perception could so large as to trigger what Daniel Goleman described as the “Amygdala Hijack.”

This means that the emotional brain, sensing a threat, hijacks the rational brain and reacts disproportionately to the perceived threat. Needless to say, this is not conducive to a successful change management, since the rational (prefrontal cortex) is exactly what’s needed to make the new connections, innovate new processes, and create new relationships that lead to a successful change imitative.

Therefore, in brain–speak, the key to a successful change management is to lower the threat perception. But that begs the question, “What do we feel threatened about when faced with change?”

This is where the SCARF model is useful because it narrows into five criteriaby which someone evaluates the threat vs. reward perception.

David Rock, the father of Neuroleadership, introduces the SCARF model as thus:

“Firstly, that much of our motivation drivingsocial behavior is governed by an overarching organizingprinciple of minimizing threat and maximizing reward (Gordon, 2000). Secondly, that several domains of social experience draw upon the same brain networks to maximizereward and minimize threat as the brain networks used for primary survival needs (Lieberman and Eisenberger, 2008). In other words, social needs are treated in much the same way in the brain as the need for food and water. The SCARF model summarizes these two themes within a framework that captures the common factors that can activate a reward or threat response in social situations”An important point to single out in this is that the human brain considers social needs as importantly as primary sustenance needs when it comes to survival. So, this is primal.

As David Rock wrote, SCARF model provides five criteria through which the brain processes threat (or reward) to its social needs. The letters of SCARF stands for:

S = Status

C = Certainty

A = Autonomy

R = Relatedness

F = Fairness

This model tells us that anyone facing a change event will evaluate the threat vs. reward perception of the proposed change according to the above five criteria. Let’s explore these criteria.

Status is simple. If your peer gets a promotion, then your status is lowered and you feel a threat and emotionally upset. If you get a promotion, your status elevates and you feel good ― your brain’s reward circuit is engaged.

Certainty is also something easily understood. It’s about knowing what’s going to happen tomorrow, next month, next year, when you retire, etc. Our brain craves certainty because we constantly draw a mental map of where we are, where we want to go, and how we are going to get there. Just imagine coming to work every day and not knowing whether you have a job.

Autonomy means that people like to feel that they are in charge of their destinies to the largest degree possible. Relatedness refers to the need to have a sense of belonging to a community that shares something intrinsic with you. This could be religion, ethnicity, culture, interests, etc. Fairness is self-explanatory. You want to be treated as others are treated; in fact, you are constantly gauging how others are treated in relations to you.

Just imagine that your peer got promoted based on his relationship with the boss’s friend. In this case, your status and fairness are both threatened. Would you feel good? Of course not.

The SCARF model is helpful because a change event is going to affect every criterion to one extent or another. Your job, if you are the one running the change management, is to minimize the affected people’s perception of threat along these five criteria.

For example, if it’s inevitable that change is going to take away a person’s sense of certainty, then you can try increasing that person’s sense of autonomy to compensate along the SCARF scale. And perhaps also try creating a community of change advisors that can help that person cope with change ― this will increase the sense of relatedness. Sense of fairness could be elevated by being totally transparent in all decision making process through the entire change management.

In short, SCARF is how the brain judges the world and one’s place in it. So, when change comes at your way, remember to SCARF down your brain to more smoothly go with the flow.

Jason Lim is a Washington, D.C., based expert on innovation, engagement and organizational culture. He has been writing for The Korea Times since 2006. He can be reached at jasonlim@msn.com, facebook/jasonlim2000 and @jasonlim2012.