4 The Psychology of Change and the Implications: SCARF

The Psychology of Change and the Implications: SCARF

The Psychology of Change

Neuroscience and change

Maximising reward and minimising danger is an overriding operating principle of our brain. Fundamentally, this is about protecting ourselves and staying away from danger.  As a result, our brain draws us towards things where we gain positive reinforcement and away from things that cause stress or danger.  In terms of change and the responses we see to change, this can sometimes mean that people avoid the uncertainty or risk associated with new ideas or ways of working as our brain may be telling us this uncertainty or new approach may involve some kind of stress or negative impact to us.

Often when we sense these potential threats we have certain physiological responses that are, in fact, adaptive and highly useful. They enable extra oxygen and glucose to get to our muscles very quickly for immediate action. The feelings experienced in such a situation are explained in the table below.

All of this is brought about by a release of adrenaline and related chemicals into the blood stream in the face of any kind of threat that your brain perceives.  It is important to note here that fear, excitement, and exercise generate similar physiological reactions but we interpret each differently depending on the sense of reward or danger our brain perceives. We know that this interpretation of how we feel can play a vital role in how we view new ideas or respond to new events in our work and our personal lives.

Evolutionary Psychology

Quite clearly the fight or flight response was very useful to cavemen who needed to fight dinosaurs as a part of regular survival in prehistoric times. It is also useful in avoiding danger. Modern humans, though, find most of their threats come from sources other than dinosaurs. Threats come in the form of needs to achieve, the need for approval, security needs, financial needs, the need for love and belonging, and so on. Some of our needs are based on perception more than anything else and of course are the result of what we have learned. When these needs are not being met, we feel under threat and the physical response is the same as if being confronted by a Sabre Toothed Tiger.

David Rock’s SCARF Model

Since early this century, neurobiologist and coach, David Rock, has been considering the way in which insights from neuroscience can inform coaching and leadership approaches.  He suggests that insights from how our brain works can give clues about people’s reactions to change and the potential stressors associated with change.  In the context of this unit, we are interested in understanding how changes that may come about as a result of your applied problem solving may be viewed by others in your environment.

Rock’s SCARF model suggests 5 social dimensions around which our brain reacts to potential stressors associated with change or adaptation, remembering that ultimately our brain’s priority is to minimise threat and maximise reward.

Those 5 Dimensions are

• Status
• Certainty
• Autonomy
• Relatedness
• Fairness

Rock’s view is that responses we see to change or transition in these domains reflect primitive human threat and reward responses of our brain[1]. Understanding this potential reaction can help people prepare for and manage change approaches within teams and workplaces – for example a restructure or a change in policy.

Activity: Watch this youtube animation for a simple overview of the SCARF model and how to apply this at work.

https://youtu.be/qMejNf0dL2g

Now that you have a basic understanding of David Rock’s SCARF model, let’s have a look at each of the 5 dimensions in turn.

Status

Status is about my perceived importance, sense of identity and my perceived ‘place’ in the pecking order of a team or group. A threat response in this domain may be triggered by professional criticism, a change in role title or negative performance feedback. At the same time, a reward response to the ‘Status’ dimension may be experienced if a change in work structure results in a promotion or enhanced role title.  The interesting thing is even small changes can trigger significant reactions in terms of my perceived personal status as this dimension is linked to my ego and identity.[2]

Certainty

All humans like to feel some level of certainty about the road ahead and the way in which we can predict and plan for our future. Of course, recent times have reinforced that ambiguity and lack of certainty is a key feature of modern life.

When we lack certainty, our brain needs to work harder to process more information and variables and we can feel that personal control is diminished. As Rock reminds us, mild uncertainty can motivate us to learn more about a situation; however too much uncertainty can paralyse activity and negatively influence decision making.

Autonomy

When we perceive that our autonomy has been reduced, we tend to judge that as a threat to our wellbeing. This also adds to our perception of uncertainty. By contrast, when we feel that we have greater autonomy this increases our perceptions of certainty and it also tends to reduce stress.

Relatedness

Humans are social beings. We need and require relationships to survive and thrive. This sense of relatedness is fundamental to our sense of safety. The degree to which we feel safe with others is affected by the nature and quality of these relationships. In the Army and other organizations where not only our sense of safely is a stake but in fact our personal safety is in the hand of those around us, the importance of relatedness is enhanced.

The Army strives to build and emphasise a culture where this relatedness is reinforced as a way of life. This happens through required and encouraged behaviours, symbols and the hierarchies that are navigated everyday.

Increasingly we understand the science, psychology and biology of relatedness. Armies of yore understood the power of relatedness and perhaps imagined or hypothesised about the ‘why’ and now to some degree we know how it works.

In the brain, the ability to feel trust and empathy about others is shaped by whether they are perceived to be part of the same team/tribe. The brain quickly makes friend or foe decisions.

Strong social connections result in the secretion of oxytocin (a hormone associated with affection, maternal behaviour, generosity, authenticity, trust). This disarms the threat response and opens neural connections so we perceive someone as ‘one of us’.

On the other hand, loneliness and isolation are profoundly stressful and can be perceived by the brain in a similar way to physical hurt.

Fairness

Fairness is one of the most powerful of the drivers of human behaviours and our beliefs about life

Fairness is a subjective experience that depends on those involved and how they perceive fairness issues1. It also has a strong relationship to the sense of control that people feel in any given situation and whether others are respectful and can be trusted in their use of control over those around them.

We tend to make fairness judgements quickly in situations and particularly when we join a team or a workplace. ‘Fairness’ information is all around us and we are perceptive and responsive to those cues.

We also have a fundamental need to feel certain and we motivated to reduce uncertainty because it can be threatening, and therefore, care more about fairness when they feel uncertain.

So you see that fairness is central to our place in our organization and thus to you in the Army.

Unfairness generates a strong response in the limbic system, stirring hostility and undermining trust.

As with status, people perceive fairness in relative terms –feeling more satisfied with a fair exchange that offers a minimal reward than an unfair exchange in which the reward is substantial.

Fairness produces reward responses in the brain similar to those that occur from eating chocolate.

Activity:

SCARF is a fundamental approach to use when we are considering change and something ‘new’. Many and perhaps even most changes lead to some kinds of losses and gains felt by individuals. It is really important for you to understand the sense that your stakeholders have of the losses and gains they perceive in relation to change and changes before you get too far down the track.  This is important as often we can become so involved in the potential benefits of change and innovation proposals; that we can inadvertently leave key people behind. This can cause strong resentment and even active resistance and subversion, even where a new idea or opportunity may have great potential benefits.

At the very least we advise you to use this SCARF losses and gains tool to help with your thinking. This is how it works.

Action 1: Write a short overview of the change you are considering as part of this unit; including the benefits of the change and also any potential barriers and challenges you believe you might encounter.

Action 2: Create a list of the people, teams and other entities that are involved or in some way impacted by the project or initiative you are designing. Before you start creating a huge list of stakeholders, we’d ask you to create what we at QUT call a ‘salience’ list. The salience list includes those who are clearly the most important to the project, who have power and influence, and those who have a strong interest in either the project being successful or who might have an interest in its failure.

We do recommend that you keep this list private! No one wants to discover that they are identified on a stakeholder list as an impediment to a project!

Action 3: Choose the top 3 to 5 stakeholders from your list and add them to the SCARF template.

Considering the area of change. For each element, place an up arrow or down arrow in the box to identify the potential gain or loss for each person / stakeholder.

↓= potential loss

↑= potential gain

↔= neutral or unsure

What insights does this give you about how to support you and your team through the change?

[1] Rock, D. (2008) SCARF: A brain-based model for collaborating with an influencing others. Neuroleadership Journal 1: 1-9

[2] Rock, D. (2008) SCARF: A brain-based model for collaborating with an influencing others. Neuroleadership Journal 1: 1-9