Understanding the Johari Window model

A Johari window is a psychological tool created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955. It’s a simple and useful tool for understanding and training:

• self-awareness
• personal development
• improving communications
• interpersonal relationships
• group dynamics
• team development; and
• inter group relationships

It is one of the few tools out there that has an emphasis on “soft skills” such as behaviour, empathy, co-operation, inter group development and interpersonal development. It’s a great model to use because of its simplicity and also because it can be applied in a variety of situations and environments.

In this example we are going to talk about how the Johari window works with an individual within a team. In this instance there are two factors at work within the Johari window. The first factor is what you know about yourself. The second factor relates to what other people know about you.

The model works using four area quadrants. Anything you know about yourself and are willing to share is part of your open area. Individuals can build trust between themselves by disclosing information to others and learning about others from the information they in turn disclose about themselves.

Any aspect that you do not know about yourself, but others within the group have become aware of, is in your blind area. With the help of feedback from others you can become aware of some of your positive and negative traits as perceived by others and overcome some of the personal issues that may be inhibiting your personal or group dynamics within the team.

There are also aspects about yourself that you are aware of but might not want others to know, this quadrant is known as your hidden area. This leaves just one area and is the area that is unknown to you or anyone else – the unknown area.

The balance between the four quadrants can change. You might want to tell someone an aspect of your life that you had previously kept hidden. For example, maybe you are not comfortable contributing ideas in large groups. This would increase your open area and decrease your hidden area.

It is also possible to increase your open area by asking for feedback from people. When feedback is given honestly to you it can reduce the size of your blind area. Maybe you interrupt people before they have finished making their point which can cause frustration. Alternatively people may always want to talk to you because you are a good listener. Sometimes you don’t realise these aspects of your character until it is pointed out.

By working with others it is possible for you to discover aspects that neither of you may never have appreciated before.

Some examples of unknown factors can be as follows:

• an ability that is under-estimated or un-tried through lack of opportunity, encouragement, confidence or training
• a natural ability or aptitude that a person doesn’t realise they possess
• a fear or aversion that a person does not know they have
• an unknown illness
• repressed or subconscious feeling
• conditioned behaviour or attitudes from childhood

For example in an educational setting, a student’s contact with a tutor, may help them understand how their experiences both in and outside of school can have an impact on their learning. This discovery about themself would reduce the size of their unknown area.

From a practical point of view in implementing the Johari window you need to look at two steps.

Step one:

The place to start in the Johari window is in the open area. Make some notes about yourself. Complete the Self Awareness Diagnostic. What are your strengths and your weaknesses? What are you comfortable with and willing to share with others? Try and be honest and clear about what you know about yourself already.

Step two:

Involve other people and ask for feedback about yourself. Be prepared to seriously consider it. That doesn’t mean that you have to do everything that’s suggested, but you should at least listen and think about it. Then give the person who provided the feedback some acknowledgement or thanks for making the effort. Depending on how confident you are you might prefer to do this as either a group exercise or on a one to one basis. Remember that giving effective feedback is a skill and some people may be better at it than others. When receiving feedback, be respectful, listen and reflect on what has been said. It may be on receiving feedback you may want to explore it further that can lead to discovery about yourself.

The Johari window as a tool does have its drawbacks:

• Some things are perhaps better not communicated with others.
• People may pass on the information they received further than you desire or use it in a negative way.
• Some people or cultures have a very open and accepting approach to feedback and some do not. People can take personal feedback offensively so it’s important when facilitating to exercise caution and start gradually.

There are many ways to use the Johari model in learning and development. It very much depends on what you want to achieve in your training or development activities? What are your intended outputs and how will you measure that they have been achieved? How can the Johari Window theory and principles are used to assist this.

Johari is a very elegant and potent model, and as with other powerful ideas, simply helping people to understand is the most effective way to optimise the value to people. When people really understand it in their own terms, it empowers them to use the thinking in their own way, and to incorporate the underlying principles into their future thinking and behaviour.

The Self Awareness Diagnostic is a great accompaniment to the Johari window model. It helps people to explore the qualities that make them who they are. The simple online questionnaire provides instant feedback to the participant that they can positively use in understanding their personal strengths and weaknesses, what belongs in their open space. It can also objectively help the participant to start to process some of those attributes that reside in their blind spot and can encourage discussion amongst the group without being confrontational or causing contention.

What is unique about the Self Awareness Diagnostic is it explores not only an individual’s ‘soft skills’ and working style preferences but also how participants like to learn; their learning styles. In an education or business environment this can be a great enabler for a teacher or trainer to ensure all the members of the group are motivated and able to achieve their full potential.

The Johari Window: A Helpful Interpersonal Awareness Tool

The Johari Window is a four box tool that helps people think about the differences between how they see themselves and how others see them. It also provides some guidance to help individuals reduce this difference.

Summary by The World of Work Project

The Johari Window

The Johari window is a model of interpersonal awareness. It’s a useful tool for improving self awareness and, through it, our abilities to work well with others. It works by helping us understand the differences between how we see ourselves and how others see us.

The premise behind the Johari Window is that our interactions with others are shaped by how we see ourselves and how the person we’re interacting with sees us. If our views are aligned, we’ll have more effective, engaging and helpful interactions than if our views are differing. As an aside you might like this quote by Charles Horton Cooley.

Open and transparent working relationships tend to be the best ones.

The Johari Window gets its name from the combined first names of its inventors, Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham.

How the Johari Window Works

The Johari window works by helping individuals visualize the difference between how they see themselves and how others see them.

The tool requires individuals to capture their own thoughts on who they are and to get feedback from others on how they are perceived. This information is then used to populate a two by two matrix, the Johari Window. The window helps people visualize any disparity between how they see themselves and how others see them.

The four quadrants of the window are:

• “Open” (things known by self and others),
• “Blind” (thing known by others but unknown by self),
• “Hidden / Facade” (things known by self but unknown by others), and
• “Unknown” (things not known by either self or others).

Discover Your Johari Window

Discovering what your Johari Window looks like requires some honesty, a group of peers and some trust. To complete the activity, you need to choose words that you think describe you from a set list and get your peers to do the same. You then explore at the differences between the words you and they chose. Once you understand where the differences are you can create a plan to help you bridge the gap. The following steps will help you do this:

1. Choose your peers: Identify people who you trust and who you think know you, or members of your team if you’re completing a team activity.
2. Select your words: Review the list of 56 words and circle 5-10 words that you think best describe you.
3. Get your feedback: Ask your chosen peers to complete the same exercise, choosing the 5-10 words they think best describe you.
4. Plot your words: Place words both you and others selected in “Open” pane. Place words that only you selected in the “Hidden” pane.
5. Plot your feedback: Place words your peers selected but that you didn’t in the “Blind” pane. Place the remaining words in the “unknown” pane. Alternatively, you can choose to leave the “Blind” pane empty.
6. Review your Window: Review the words in the four pains of the window. How aligned is your view of who you are with how others see you? How open are you as a person?

The Words to Use

The 56 words below are the “Johari Adjectives” which are most commonly used for this activity. You can use alternative lists of words if you would like. Whatever words you choose to use, make sure there is a large, varied group to choose from.

Your Window

Once you’ve completed the activity and drawn your window you will get a sense of how much overlap there is between how you see yourselves and how others see you.

The relative size of the different quadrants of your window will be a function of how long you’ve been in the team, how open you are, how perceptive your peers are and a range of other factors. You may need to repeat the exercise a few times to get a really clear picture of your window.

Regardless of what your window looks like, the important thing from the premise of the model is to see what you can do to increase the size of your “open” pane and reduce the sizes of your other panes.

The more open we are in our relationships, the more others tend to understand us. Generally speaking this helps communicate effectively and build trust, among other things.

Next Steps

Once you’ve completed The Johari Window activity and have a clear view of what your window looks like, you can start to work towards changing your window.

Most people aim to increase the size of their “open” window and shrink the size of their other windows. There are two main ways they do. Firstly, they try being more open and transparent with others about how they think and feel. This increases the size of their open window and reduces the size of their hidden window. Secondly they seek more feedback from others, which reduces the size of their “blind” window. Some people also look to reduce the size of their “unknown” window, though this can be more difficult. Doing this often requires investing some time in self-discovery and developing self awareness.

If you would like to increase the size of your “open” window and reduce the size of your other windows, you may wish to:

1. Plan for your hidden pane: Consider if there is more you would like to share about yourself, and how you could disclose it.
2. Plan for your blind pane: Consider if there is more you would like to learn about how others perceive you and how to get more feedback.
3. Share your window and plans: Share your completed window with the peers that provided your feedback and let them know your plans to grow your open pane and shrink your other panes.

A Group Activity

The activity we detailed above is usually an individual discovery activity. But the Johari window can also be completed as a group activity.

To make this a group activity, simply bring a group of peers together in a room, or virtually, and get them to select their own words and the words they’d use to describe each of their peers. The individuals in the activity can then create their own windows based on their feedback. If they wish they can then share their windows and discuss action plans within the group environment.

You can use the Johari window with your peer group at work, if you wish.

Learning More

The Johari window explores self awareness and interpersonal awareness. These factors are important for building trust in teams. The also can increase a sense of connection and cohesion and teams leading to improved employee experience and employee engagement. To get further insights into these areas it’s worth exploring your personal values.

This podcast on self awareness might be of some interest:

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The World of Work Project View

The Johari window is a good, simple tool to use to increase self awareness as well as to start conversations about perception and the importance of feedback. It’s for these reasons that it’s quite a popular tool in the world of work.

It’s most effective in environments with higher levels of trust and honest. If trust and honest are low, disclosure will be low and people may not learn, or may get a false impression of themselves.

While it it can be a helpful tool, not everyone feels comfortable being open, sharing and giving or receiving feedback. If you’re using it as a team exercise, make sure that your team is comfortable using it and willing to give it a go. If you don’t, you may end up alienating or upsetting people .

It’s also worth noting that, like many similar exercises, you’ll probably get different results every time you do the activity. It’s best to think of it just as guidance, not as an objective truth.

Overall we like the model, despite some of its limitations.

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This post is based on interpretations of work originally produced by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham. You can read more in Joe Luft’s 1969 book: Of Human Interaction: Johari Model.

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