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SCARF Model

TTool · SCARF Model

By , Editor · · What’s Next

You announced a reasonable change. The reaction was disproportionate. People you expected to be allies are pushing back, and the reasons they're giving don't quite add up.

The SCARF Model is David Rock's neuroscience-based framework identifying five social domains that drive behaviour: Status (relative importance), Certainty (ability to predict), Autonomy (sense of control), Relatedness (connection to others), and Fairness (perception of just exchanges). You map which domains a change threatens or rewards, then design accordingly.

Five labelled blocks spelling SCARF - Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness - each with a diagnostic question about how a meeting threatens that domain. A banner reads "Wrong domain, wrong response, worse meeting."
Method visual — SCARF Model
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