Overwhelmed? Put on a SCARF 🧣

Rebecca Noskeau
Apr 20
3 min read

I've spent the last few weeks having conversations about this model 1-1, so felt it would be valuable to share here...

It's one of the highest models of utility I've found for navigating tough times. Especially when you, and others you're supporting, are being impacted by something, and just can't get enough space around thoughts and feelings to deescalate, or choose how to respond 🤯

It's the SCARF model, and it was created by Dr. David Rock.

If you haven't read/listened to 'Your Brain at Work' 📚 you're missing out - it's one of my all-time favourites and highest recommends!

Anyhoo, Rock synthesised decades of research on the brain and managed to distill it down into a model that's easy to understand, share and apply ( 🤌 AKA true mastery!)...

SCARF 🧣

→ Encompasses 5 key social domains that the brain relies on for survival 🧠

→ They're pre-conscious reward/threat triggers that either:

a) make us feel like we're under attack 🫣

b) or, boost our sense of safety 👷🏻‍♀️

→ Knowing about them (and how they can be boosted, allayed, or repaired once activated) can change the game for us, and the people around us (esp. if we're leaders!).

S = STATUS 🌟

That part of our mammalian brain that assesses our relative importance to others.

🧠 → Access to resources for us and those who depend on us.

🫣 → Being told about an important decision that impacts our job security/function, in a flippant/avoidant/impersonal way.

👷🏻‍♀️ → Being told difficult news respectfully, directly and with a person/team's sense of importance and value, consciously kept intact.

C = CERTAINTY 📊

We need to be able to predict what happens next to keep us safe, and there's a huge metabolic cost when we can't.

🧠 → The need to predict the resources the body needs to meet each new challenge effectively.

🫣 → Being left out of important decisions and left in limbo - so we have 'a gap' about what will happen next.

👷🏻‍♀️ → Being told as much information upfront, having transparent processes, routes to ask questions, and dates when more information will be available.

A = AUTONOMY 🎛️

We need to feel a sense of agency about our lives and what happens to us.

🧠 → When we don't feel in control, free and able to choose, it has a chronically detrimental impact on physical and mental health, alongside our ability to be motivated and engaged.

🫣 → Not giving people a voice in how key decisions play out, or changing someone's role without their input.

👷🏻‍♀️ → Give people the opportunity to be part of the decision-making process, and empower them to input into how their role can be set up to best meet demands.

R = RELATEDNESS 🤝

Our relationships are the resource that enables us to meet the demands we're faced with. We have deep needs to feel we matter to others, are supported, connected and belong.

🧠 → We've evolved to feel a sense of belonging and connection is critical for our survival (because it is!) so when there's a threat to this (rejection, ostracism) our brains lose it.

🫣 → Feeling left out of important conversations/meetings that are happening. Feeling like our leader doesn't care about or value us, and is not supporting us.

👷🏻‍♀️ → Give people the option to be a part of the conversation, reinforce the sense of being a team, and if you are a leader, know your support weighs disproportionately heavier in allaying demands for your people.

F = FAIRNESS ⚖️

The need to be able to trust that someone is going to act with integrity, reciprocate resources and behave in a way that honours relationships.

🧠 → If someone acts unfairly, this creates a brain threat as we need to be able to rely on, trust and share cooperatively with others to survive.

🫣 → Decisions made opaquely, that we disagree with (including process and outcome), being communicated through communal documents (breaching trust and relationships), and being told by our leader we 'just need to get on with it'.

👷🏻‍♀️ → Decisions made transparently (process and outcome), which are then communicated with dignity and respect. The leader honours both the necessary outcome AND the detrimental impact of this for individuals. Providing them with support and resources.

So there you have it 🧣

If you'd like more info from the man himself - check out the work he and his amazing team are doing at the Neuroleadership Institute.

If you're a leader or responsible for an organisation, and feeling overwhelmed, and would like some support from me, check out the different opportunities available to work together.