Have you heard of the Johari Window? If so, have you ever used it?
Most of us probably think we know ourselves reasonably well. We know what we’re good at, what frustrates us, how we communicate and how we come across to others.
Or at least we think we do. The reality is that other people often see things in us that we don’t see ourselves. At the same time, there are things we know about ourselves that we don’t share with other people.
This is where the Johari Window comes in.
It is a simple model developed in the 1950s by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham. Its name comes from a combination of their first names: Jo and Hari. Despite being more than seventy years old, it is still a useful way of thinking about how well we know ourselves, how others see us and how the two compare.
And it really isn’t complicated. And I like uncomplicated.
The Johari Window divides what we know about ourselves, and what others know about us, into four ‘panes’, as shown in the image above.
The first is the open area. This is what I know about myself and what others also know about me. My colleagues might know, for example, that I am organised, enjoy solving problems, dislike last-minute surprises or ask lots of questions. None of that will come as a surprise to me.
Generally, the larger the open area, the easier it is to work together. People know what to expect from us and we have a reasonable idea of how they see us.
The second pane is the blind area. This is what others know about me that I don’t know about myself.
And this is where it starts to get interesting. The blind area can contain positive things. Perhaps other people recognise a strength in me that I don’t recognise myself. But it can also contain things that are less comfortable. I might interrupt people without realising it. I might look impatient when I’m actually concentrating. I might think I have explained something perfectly clearly while everyone else is wondering what on earth I’m talking about.
This is where feedback becomes important. We can’t do much about something we don’t know we are doing. And you need to be open to that feedback, not defensive.
The third pane is the hidden area. This is what I know about myself but choose not to share with others.
Some of that is absolutely fine. We don’t need to share everything about ourselves at work, nor should we. But sometimes we keep things to ourselves that would actually help other people work with us. Perhaps I’m uncertain about something. Perhaps I have a concern about a project. Perhaps I prefer to work in a particular way. Or perhaps I have a skill or experience that nobody else knows about.
Sharing some of this, when it is appropriate, can make a difference.
Finally, there is the unknown area. This is what neither I nor anyone else yet knows about me. It could be an ability I have never had the chance to use, how I might react in a completely new situation, or something I turn out to be surprisingly good at.
Sometimes we simply don’t know what we are capable of until we try.
As I said, the Johari Window is not complicated. That is one of the things I like about it. It gives us a simple way of talking about things that might otherwise be quite difficult to discuss.
Take feedback. Saying to someone, ‘You’re a poor listener’ is unlikely to get you very far. Exploring whether there might be something in their blind area about how they come across in meetings is a rather different conversation. It may still be uncomfortable, but it is much more likely to be useful.
The model works well with teams too. Teams work better when people understand each other. That doesn’t mean everyone has to share everything or engage in forced openness. It simply means creating an environment where people can say, ‘I don’t understand’, ‘I need some time to think about that’, ‘I find that difficult’, or ‘There’s something I’ve noticed that might help’.
There is a fairly obvious connection with Lean and process improvement.
When we look at a process we all bring our own view of how it works. The problem is that we also have blind spots. We become used to the workarounds, delays, duplication and frustrations. Things that once seemed ridiculous gradually become normal. Eventually we stop noticing them altogether.
Then somebody else looks at the process and asks, ‘Why do you do that?’
Good question.
This is one of the reasons bringing different people together to look at a process can be so powerful. They don’t all see the same thing. Something that is completely normal to one person may look decidedly odd to somebody else.
There is a lesson for leaders here as well. Leaders have blind spots too. In fact, the more senior you become, the less likely it may be that somebody will tell you about them.
It is easy to say, ‘My door is always open’ or ‘I welcome feedback’. It is rather harder to listen when somebody actually tells you something you don’t particularly want to hear. (Yes, a personal experience in a work environment that really opened my eyes to how I was coming across. Lesson learned, eventually).
The Johari Window reminds us that feedback works both ways. Used well, it isn’t a personality test and it certainly doesn’t need to become another management fad. It is simply a useful way of thinking about ourselves and our relationships with other people.
The aim isn’t to expose everything or make the whole window open. Some things quite rightly remain private. The aim is to increase useful awareness. Understand ourselves a little better. Find out how other people see us. Listen to feedback. Share what is useful. And perhaps discover a few things about ourselves that we didn’t know were there.
So, give it a go. See if you can expand your open area at the expense of the blind, hidden and unknown areas.
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