Technology company CEOs, like many executives right now, are asking themselves how best to support their people to thrive and succeed in 2022. What do our employees need from us?

A major part of any executive’s job is to be proactive in building a work environment that supports success, especially in times of stress and uncertainty. Employees need their leaders to understand and engineer the factors that support effective functioning and relationships across an organization. It can be a game-changer when we find a framework that helps us to think and talk about these factors with our teams.

When I was recruited to lead a technology company startup in 2016, our mission was to build software that would make it possible for doctors to share and learn from data to improve patient outcomes. We were trying something new, with no established systems, little precedent to lean on, and no guarantee of success. An exciting challenge!

I knew that our success depended on building a team with a wide range of expertise in technology, medicine, communications and data management. Tech companies require people to be problem-solvers and collaborators who think creatively to solve the puzzles inherent to building software. It would require us to think on our feet and work together with a high degree of collaboration, trust and teamwork. Startups are exciting, creative times- we sign up for stress as part of the excitement, so I wanted to build a resilient culture right from the start.

I came across the work of David Rock. He proposed that as humans evolved by anticipating potential threats, there are five social factors that our brains monitor constantly. The way organizations manage these factors can have a powerful impact on how we manage stress, and on how empowered and collaborative we are able to be. Rock presented his theory in a model he named SCARF, an acronym for five factors:

Rock’s theory pivots on the concept that our brains are wired for survival- always scanning for threats. Our brains evolved to push us toward rewards and away from threats. When the threat reaction activates the parts of our brain that focus on survival, it suppresses areas of the brain we need for problem-solving, teamwork and creativity.

As our new team dove into the intensive, messy process of planning, stakeholder engagement, product development and marketing, I took everyone on a workshop together to get familiar with SCARF concepts. Afterwards, we met monthly to discuss actions that we could take to increase the experience of reward for the team, and reduce the perception of threats. Step by step, we found ways to strengthen our team culture. The cumulative effect was powerful, judging from our success in achieving our business goals, exceptionally high engagement scores, and employee feedback about feeling empowered, trusted and appreciated.

Looking back, the SCARF model was a great source of insights for us. Most useful was the fact that the model helped me recognize signs that my team needed specific guidance and support. Insights from the model helped us to build partnerships, solve complex technology challenges and successfully launch the new software and user network. It was a clear demonstration of the extremely practical implications of culture on business success.

Knowing how valuable the SCARF model was for our team, I’m excited to share the following summaries of the 5 factors and key concepts with you. I hope it sparks meaningful conversations and insights that you can apply for your own business success.

The SCARF model is based on five factors that our brains are always monitoring, and that influence the “norms” and values of an organization’s work environment.

1: STATUS

The first factor, status, addresses our fundamental need to feel valued and respected. When organizations go through change, it’s very natural for people to perceive threats to their status. Some of the first telltale signs can be when someone who previously was cooperative does something oddly aggressive, or people refuse to admit mistakes. When tempers seem short, or people “go limp” on you rather than providing support, those are also signs that their brains may have been kicked into survival mode. When you see these behaviours, it’s helpful to recognize them as a normal reaction to a perceived threat of loss of status. Don’t take it personally, but do take steps to talk with them, ask about their perceptions and provide reassurance to minimize the perceived threat.

For example; early on, I saw unusual behaviour from a contractor that made me realize they were probably worried about being supplanted by new employees. I took them out for lunch and discussed their value to the organization and my intentions and standards for their involvement going forward. I was amazed at the effect that conversation had to get things moving in a positive direction again, including an immediate change in their receptiveness in meetings.

2: CERTAINTY

Supporting the second factor of certainty has been a challenge for everyone during the pandemic. We’ve all seen or experienced languishing from dealing with a high degree of uncertainty over a long period of time. As leaders, how do we provide some certainty for our teams in uncertain times?

It’s not about making unrealistic promises - it’s all about minimizing the threats that are pushing us into paralysis and creating the “reward” of a sense of safety. We can always find ways to create safety to some degree in our relationships, even if we can’t promise that things will turn out a certain way. We create that safety by letting people know what to expect from us and know what we expect from them. We don’t pretend things are more certain than they are, because that ends up undermining trust, creating a new threat.

For example, when employees asked me about the extent of funding that we had, I told them that we had funding for two years, and it was a key part of my job to secure funding for our work beyond that time; that my ability to do so would depend on the progress we could demonstrate; and that I would share information with them to keep them informed about our financial situation. Being willing to answer questions honestly provided a degree of safety in an uncertain situation, and being clear with them about what progress was required gave them a sense of clarity they needed to perform well, even thought they knew that the future was uncertain.

3. AUTONOMY

The factor of autonomy is a hot topic as companies discuss a return to work. Many employees deeply value the autonomy they have experienced while working from home, and don’t want to give it up. For those employees, being pushed to return to the office is experienced as a threat to their autonomy, so their brain’s response is to move away from that threat. When that happens, we experience anxiety, boredom, a loss of initiative and sometimes start looking for a new job with more autonomy.

I’ve observed return to work discussions that got really complicated when employers emphasized their right to control where people work, so their own autonomy got triggered when employees pushed back! The solution is for leaders to name and question their own assumptions about how work “should” get done. If we can shift to focus on the results and deliverables we actually need, we can consciously reduce the perceived threat to our autonomy. Then we can minimize the threat to autonomy felt by our employees by offering flexibility that’s a win/win.

Some companies who take innovation seriously maximize autonomy rewards by creating dedicated time and space for employees to explore new solutions or try out new ideas. We build a culture of innovation by creating everyday norms that support autonomy and creative thinking.

4. RELATEDNESS

The factor of relatedness is one that has received a lot of attention as people have been working virtually and managing the isolation that came with the pandemic. In essence, it’s about belonging.

Experienced leaders appreciate the practical business value of creating organizations where people feel a sense of connection and belonging, including the fact that neurodiversity is a competitive advantage. In terms of the threat we experience without that sense of relatedness, a lot of virtual ink has been spilled in the Harvard Business Review and other publications about research into the positive business impacts of belonging and the negative impact of isolation.

Research supports the fact that relatedness is required for mental health. Awareness about the social justice imperatives of inclusion and diversity has heightened in recent years. During the pandemic, companies have tried creative ways to maintain a sense of connection while teams work virtually.

But relatedness is important not just among colleagues; organizational policies, communications and actions to support well-being have a powerful impact. In a previous post, I shared some recent Gallup research indicating that when a team feels the organization cares about their wellbeing, they achieve higher customer engagement, profitability, and productivity, with lower turnover and fewer safety incidents.

In my experience, relatedness is the most impactful of all of the five factors: it reinforces all the others. We come into our own as leaders when we acknowledge our own need for connection. As we grow in empathy, we find genuine ways to connect that really impact our teams. When executives talk with me about how to strengthen their corporate cultures, relatedness is usually the factor that I suggest they focus on first.

5. FAIRNESS

Our brain’s reaction to perceived threats of fairness is one of the most powerful. Nothing will erode trust and demotivate employees more quickly than a perceived unfairness that is not addressed. No leader or organization, however focused on values, is perfect in this regard- we are all continuously learning how to make our organizations more equitable and fair.

Fortunately, the symptoms of a perceived threat to fairness are pretty obvious if you keep your eyes open; people show avoidance behaviour and heightened anxiety, and the most telltale sign is disgust or anger. When you pick up on those reactions, strong leaders don’t ignore them. The perceptions of threat will not go away- they will just go underground and erode the health of your team culture. This can be one of the most challenges factors to address, as it takes humility and compassion for leaders to listen and even when our ego is threatened, have the discipline to listen without being defensive.

Thank the employees who care enough and are brave enough to share their perceptions of unfairness with you. They make it possible for you to minimize threats and maximize rewards by improving systems and policies that treat everyone fairly.

If you’d like to explore the SCARF model further, there’s lots more information available online at the NeuroLeadership Institute (it’s associated with David Rock, who developed the SCARF model.)

I hope this overview inspires you to use this model as a conversation starter to explore how your team can work more effectively together. By understanding how our brains react to perceived threats and rewards, we can notice and understand behaviours that might previously have caused us to scratch our heads. With this understanding, we’re empowered to engineer the SCARF factors that support effective functioning and relationships across the organization.