SCARF Model: This is How to Tighten Up Your Collaborations!

Meet Joe, who recently started a new job as a manager at a scarf factory. Joe has recently been given his first big assignment and really wants to make a good impression. His boss, Mike walks into the company kitchen at lunchtime where he finds Joe, who seems a bit out of sorts and is totally on edge.  Not to mention he is wearing a scarf and it’s the middle of July!  And even worse he is scarfing down his lunch like he hasn’t eaten in 5 days!  We will come back to this interesting story in a bit but first, let’s talk about the SCARF model.

Believe it or not, The SCARF model has nothing to do with a piece of fabric worn around the head to keep you warm or to make you look more fashionable. And it certainly has nothing to do with pigging out or ‘downing’ food really quickly and hastily! What it does have something to do with is working with others more effectively. Actually, it is a brain-based model that includes 5 domains that influence how we behave in social situations and improve collaborations with others.

SCARF Model

The SCARF model was created by David Rock and discussed in both an academic paper called “A Brain-Based Model for Collaborating with and Influencing Others”, and in his book Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long. His model contains five domains of human social experience that our brains treat as either primary rewards or threats.

So, whenever we collaborate with others, be it at work, school, family events or social events each of the following 5 factors activate either our brains ‘primary threat’ circuitry or ‘primary reward’ circuitry:

  Status: our relative importance to others.
  Certainty: our ability to predict the future.
  Autonomy: our ability to maintain a sense of control over events.
  Relatedness: being able to feel safe when with others (being friend rather than foe).
  Fairness: our perception of fair exchanges with others.

For example, if someone calls us out on something or says something that we think may make us look less intelligent, it may trigger our ‘primary threat’ circuitry to our status and make us react in a defensive manner. We will get to each of the domains in a hot minute, first let’s go a little deeper into the concept of…

The Avoid-Approach Response 

According to Rock, the concept of minimizing danger or maximizing reward “is analogous to a concept that has appeared in the literature for a long time: the approach-avoid response.” ¹

What happens is when you are in a situation, the brain tags the social trigger encountered as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

If it is ‘good’ or associated with a reward or positive emotion, we approach or engage.

And if it is ‘bad’ or associated with punishment or negative emotion, we avoid or disengage. It is our brains survival mechanism designed to help keep us alive! It is the amygdala (our reptilian brain) hard at work.

Now, Watch What Happens to Our Brain in Each Scenario…

Scenario #1: Avoid

Let’s say you are being interrogated by your boss.  This encounter will be tagged as ‘bad’ and seen as a threat which triggers an avoid response.

When this happens a bunch of stuff happens in our brain resulting in:

  Diminished cognitive resources.
  It is more difficult to notice the signals required for insight and having ‘aha’ moments.
  Avoiding opportunities and a tendency to ‘play it safe’.
  Reacting in a more defensive manner.
  Perceiving stressors to be larger than they are.

Scenario #2: Approach

Now, on the other hand, let’s say you have a positive encounter with your boss. This encounter will be tagged as ‘good’ and associated with a positive emotion.

When this happens, we react as follows, we:

  Are willing to do difficult things and take risks.
  Think more deeply about things and try to come up with solutions.
  Experience positive approach emotions such as happiness, joy, and desire.
  Our dopamine levels increase which facilitates learning and interest.

The key thing with the SCARF model is that it is an easy way for us to identify and handle the different social triggers that produce approach and avoid responses. The idea is to minimize the avoid or threat responses and maximize the approach or positive responses when collaborating with or influencing others.

SCARF These 5 Elements Down!

Let’s take a closer look at each of the 5 elements and see how you can both minimize threat responses and maximize positive responses related to them when dealing with others.

(1)  Status

Status is all about our relative importance, our ‘pecking order’ and maybe our seniority. We go to great lengths to protect our status and a reduction in status can produce a big threat response.

Ideas to minimize status threats:
  Be careful when giving other people instructions or advice as it can lead to people defending a position that doesn’t make sense just to protect their status. One way to reduce the threat is to let someone evaluate themselves first, another is for you to restate your instructions or advice more positively.

Ideas to maximize status rewards:
  A good way to increase status is to give people a chance to improve themselves. By improving whatever they are doing they are ‘better than’ their previous self. Positive feedback, especially public acknowledgment can also increase perceived status.

(2)  Certainty

The brain loves certainty because it allows it to predict what is going to happen. When we experience uncertainty, our brains use more resources to process what is happening from moment to moment. A sense of certainty is rewarding and meeting expectations releases dopamine.

Ideas to minimize uncertainty threats:
  Creating plans, and strategies creates clarity and reduces uncertainty.
  Breaking down projects or tasks into smaller steps.
  Looking ahead to possible outcomes in various situations.

Ideas to maximize certainty rewards:
  Letting people know what is going to happen in advance. For example, how long a meeting will last, the objectives at the start of a conversation, a specific date of an organizational restructure etc.

(3)  Autonomy

Autonomy is simply the perception that you are able to exert control over your environment. We discussed it in a recent post on intrinsic motivation. Think about being micromanaged, you have a lack of control and feel helpless to influence outcomes.

Ideas to minimize a lack of autonomy threats:
  Give people options instead of saying ‘do this’.

Ideas to maximize autonomy rewards:
  Time: flexible hours or working from home.
  Task: giving employees the option of working on projects that interest them.
  Team: giving employees freedom of who they work with.

(4)  Relatedness

Most people naturally like to form ‘tribes’ as it gives them a sense of belonging. Relatedness is all about deciding if others are ‘in’ or ‘out’ of a social group, are they ‘friend’ or ‘foe’?

Ideas to minimize threats:
  Not experiencing relatedness can make people feel isolated and lonely. So, the idea is to encourage social connections like “water cooler talk”. Making others feel comfortable by sharing personal aspects of themselves during conversations.

Ideas to maximize relatedness rewards:
  Creating safe connections between people. Creating coaching programs, mentoring arrangements, or buddy systems.

(5)  Fairness

When someone perceives a situation to be unfair it causes a strong threat response. People see fairness as intrinsically rewarding and part of the reason people do volunteer work is to reduce the unfairness in the world.

Ideas to minimize unfairness threats:
  Increased transparency, communication, and involvement on various issues.

 Ideas to maximize fairness rewards:
  Creating clear expectations up front. Some examples are setting ground rules, objectives, expectations. Another option is to let teams create ground rules that they must follow – by being involved in their creation, they are more likely to follow them.

Back to Our Guy Joe

Mike waits 10 seconds for him to finish scarfing down his lunch, he doesn’t want to disturb him and lose an appendage in the process and then asks him if everything is ok. Joe tells him that he’s in a rush because he needs to finish his first project.

After thinking about it, Mike recalls a recent blog post he read on Prime Your Pump about the SCARF model. He then realizes that Joe’s behavior is caused by him being a little uncertain and he remembers from the article that the brain loves certainty or knowing what will happen.

It hits Mike that he made a mistake and never gave Joe a deadline for his first project which is causing Joe’s uncertainty. To minimize the threat of uncertainty he tells Joe that the project is due in 2 weeks.

After relaying this information, he immediately notices Joe breathe a sigh of relief and a sense of calm come over him.

Joe just wishes Mike gave him this information before he scarfed down his lunch and he says to Mike, “ok great, thanks Mike, by the way…do you have any Rolaids?”

Until next time, keep using the SCARF model, eat slowly, and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick

Use It or Lose It

The 5 elements of the SCARF model that you can use to both minimize threat responses and maximize positive responses related to them when dealing with others are:

  Status
  Certainty
  Autonomy
  Relatedness
  Fairness

When to Use It:

Use the SCARF model when you want to collaborate with and influence others better.

What Do You Think About the SCARF Model?

Have you used any of the elements of the SCARF model when collaborating with or trying to influence others? Can you see yourself using it? Please share in the comments below!

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References

1 SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others by David Rock

Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long By David Rock