At the recent 2011 HR People and Strategy (HRPS) conference, I attended a presentation by David Rock, co-founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute, which helped put some hard science behind what we observe as change professionals on a daily basis.

Through a host of research, Rock and his colleagues have determined that the same innate responses that drive our will for survival, namely “fight or flight”, also drive human social behavior. Humans are constantly – consciously or subconsciously – assessing whether to approach or avoid different stimuli in order to maximize reward and minimize threat. According to Rock’s research, our assessments are made around five primary factors within our human experience. Rock and his colleagues have coined this the SCARF model:

Status: Relative importance to others.

Certainty: Our ability to predict the future.

Autonomy: A sense of control over events – the ability to choose.

Relatedness: A sense of safety with others, friend versus foe.

Fairness: Perception of just exchanges between people.

Navigating effectively through organizational change depends on an awareness of each of these five factors and an understanding of how specific behaviors and events within organizations may trigger approach or avoidance responses. In particular, identifying the approaches and actions leaders and change agents need to adopt in order to:

• Create a positive response to reinforce status
  
• Provide greater certainty
• Allow options and choices
• Create safe environments to build relatedness and trust
• Improve transparency to drive perceptions of fairness.

As a change and communications professional, I personally found Rock’s paper “SCARF: a brain-based model for collaboration with and influencing others” very helpful in providing a scientific perspective to consider when designing, planning and implementing effective change programs.