These five forces creep in quietly but take over once they're in the room.
I've seen this happen firsthand during large digital transformation efforts, including in higher education, where stakeholders span academic departments, IT, administration and student services — all with different motivations and comfort levels. When SCARE sets in, meetings become tense, decision-making slows down and trust erodes. People start protecting their turf instead of solving problems.
But here's the truth: SCARE can be flipped.
After years of leading projects across the public and private sectors, I began intentionally moving teams away from SCARE by introducing the CARES framework: communicate, adapt, relationships, empower and stay calm.
This isn't a theory I pulled from a leadership book. It came from hard conversations, failed rollouts and a determination to turn things around.
- Communicate. It always starts here. Not with a status update or a data dump, but with real communication — early, honest and ongoing. When we were modernizing our systems at Clackamas Community College, we made a commitment to communicate even when things were uncertain. That alone reduced anxiety.
- Adapt. We often think of change as something to "manage," but the better mindset is to expect it. In one project, our timeline shifted three times due to vendor delays. Instead of forcing the original plan, we reprioritized and adjusted how we measured success. That flexibility kept the momentum alive.
- Relationships. Technical rollouts fail when people feel excluded or unheard. When we slowed down and took time to build relationships with deans, faculty and support staff, collaboration became smoother. You can't shortcut trust.
- Empower. People don't resist change — they resist being changed without input. When teams feel like they have a say, they'll own the outcome. We started creating space for feedback from end users early in the process, and the shift in energy was immediate.
- Stay calm. This one is hard, but staying calm — especially as a leader — is contagious. During a system outage, our team was understandably on edge. I chose to stay steady, focus on what we could control, and model that calm for the rest of the room. That moment stuck with people more than anything else.
Change is never easy, especially in an environment as layered and mission-driven as education. But when we shift from SCARE to CARES, we're not just managing projects — we're restoring clarity, trust and purpose.
And that's what our campuses need most right now.
Saby Waraich is the chief information officer of Clackamas Community College, Oregon.
