SCARF is a really useful model - once you are familiar with it it explains so much. It helps make sense of so much of the way our human world works, yet it can be seen in the animal world too. Once you make the model visible, you can see the why ‘happy’ and ‘unhappy’ people. You also see how the systems that persist in organising humanity actually work.

For example, in one of my nearby Innisfree shops, this sign gives a few ‘SCARF rewards’:

With one strategy, customers have greater autonomy (who enjoys shop assistants descending on you in seconds?) and gives the shop assistants big certainty.

Another favourite is the count-down traffic light:

While traffic lights are all about fairness - we take turns (reciprocity) to get access to the road (resource), sometimes we can perceive unfairness and uncertainty when signals appear to be biased and they seem to take for ever to turn our way. the high certainty of seeing when it will be our turn manages down some of the threat in the brain.

Your own SCARF Bias

Once you begin to see and use SCARF, the next level of insight comes from your own bias. You see, we all respond differently to these social dimensions/needs, perhaps even in different contexts. I know that I have a strong negative response to facilitators who insist on everyone raising their hands to show agreement: “Everyone raise your hands, yes or yes?”. Clearly in this context, I have a good Autonomy trigger. I also know that I can endure uncertainty in most situations, but not when I am trying to book a complex flight schedule.

You can take a short diagnostic survey from the Neuroleadership Institute to get a sense of your SCARF bias (that’s mine above). To do this visit https://neuroleadership.com/research/tools/nli-scarf-assessment/

Because I am especially influenced by Relatedness, this is what I will be seeking from many situations. But here’s the thing: This is also what I will be tending to give back. My Certainty is relatively low, so it is likely that I won’t be giving this back out to others as much as Relatedness. If I lead others, it may well be that at least one is driven by a need high certainty. We need to learn to lean into our less dominant dimensions for others, once we know what their bias might be,

SCARF and the pandemic

Outside the walls of your family home, the COVID-10 pandemic is wrecking havoc with each of the SCARF elements, creating threat responses left right and centre.

Status: Have you lost your job, or have you had reduced income? Are you a small business owner, and people don’t want your services or products at the moment? Or has COVID-19 gifted you with high demand?

Certainty: When will this end? How will the world look like afterwards? Will I have your job or income back? What does your skill, service or value look like in the near future?

Autonomy: The huge loss of personal freedom, in so many dimensions, has been the currency of trying to control the global outbreak.

Relatedness: What has happened to your work, social and recreational teams and tribes? Your immediate family is likely to be the only available tribe. Are you finding new tribes online, even through memes and themes with strangers?

Fairness: What unfairness are you responding to? Is it to the people who flout the new expectations of social distancing and isolation?

Conclusion

So what is the lesson of SCARF? When people in your family feel valued (S), are clear on how things work (C), have the ability to choose or have influence (A), feel connected and in the tribe, and have access to the resources they need (F), they will generally be happy folk.