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Understanding Scrum by SCARF Model
When we come to human behaviour we come to know that our brains react accordingly
sensing the threat and reward. Even though previously the brain used to react at the same
level for life and death situations but now with the evolution of the brain it reacts the same to
human social experience which we will not consider a life or death situation. Research shows
that the brain reacts accordingly to sensing the threat and reward situation. This can be
considered a negative point for us as in today’s world we are dependent on it for our jobs
well.
When it comes to scrum we have seen how scrum is a success from a technical point of view
due to its simple set of activities, roles, and artifacts. In today’s article, we will understand
how scrum is also a success considering the social neuroscience perspective. For that, we will
use the SCARF model.
With psychology and neuroscience, we can know that some things are going on in our heads.
We tend to make risky decisions we watch smiling faces, and our perceptions are also based
on the language used. Our perception plays an important role when it comes to decision
making whether it will be neutral or passionate.
As said by Roy T. Bennette, “The outer world is a reflection of an inner world. Other
people's perception of you is a reflection of them; your response to them is an awareness
of you.”
Five dimensions of human social experience defined by David Rock are as follows
 S- Status
 C- Certainty
 Autonomy
 R- Relatedness
 F- Fairness
SCRAF model tried to explain how actions are perceived by the recipient. This SCARF
model is explained in detail as follows.
Status
People always crave recognition. When someone feels dismissed, diminished, or ignored a
neurological reaction creating pain is occurred in the brain similar to physical pain. Even
though it doesn’t hurt like a physical blow but it is still treated with a similar feeling in the
brain.
In the world, when someone feels ignored or not heard they consider themselves undervalued
and then they will act negatively by disconnecting themselves from work, team, or group.
Scrum doesn’t believe in hierarchy making it flat in status and adopting servant leader style.
Certainty

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Brains function by predicting and having the certainty of the upcoming actions. The brain
always works and keeps on predicting the near and far future. When something goes wrong
from a prediction it shifts into crisis mode and tries to work and fix the error this reduces your
productivity. When the actions and results are right as per prediction we feel good. Having
plans and strategies resulting in its outcomes feel good but, an agile habit of rejecting
decisions until required makes us uncomfortable. When plans and strategies go wrong brain
is tricked into perceiving certainty and triggers a reward reaction. Scrums accountability
creates certainty and other elements as a definition of done.
Autonomy
Even if it’s only a choice between two and having control over things we love it. We as
human beings love to have control over things. Removing choices or options will create a
threat signal to our brain. Even if you have autonomy comparing and seeing others have more
anatomy than you will also create a threat signal. Agile teams work well with autonomy but
when it comes to higher-level autonomy within the team may lead stakeholders to feel out of
control and hence create a threat. To avoid this autonomy and alignment should be combined.
Where goals will be defined together giving comfort to stakeholders. But still how to achieve
the goals will be decided by the agile teams. Here we can say that scrum teams are self-
organized and self-managed which creates a sense of control over their decision.
Relatedness
We still give high importance to groups and our belonging to them. We constantly evaluate
whether people are friends or foes. If we perceive team members are not in our group a threat
trigger is created whereas when we are among friends reward senses are triggered making it
an important aspect. Agile groups have good collaborations among themselves as agile values
it more in team members and customers improving their relatedness. As diversity occurs
within a team the relatedness trigger is mostly important felt in minority teams. Scrum values
guide team members in achieving a sense of belonging and building trust.
Fairness
We always want to see everyone treated as equal and fairly. As scrum is based on
transparency and empiricism it provides a sense of fairness among the members of an
organization.
As we have seen elements of the SCARF model and also how scrum creates a rewarding
sense in all the elements of the SCARF model make scrum popular and successful.