I first came across the concept of the Johari Window when I was in 7th grade. My father was then a member of the Toastmasters Club and was preparing for what would be his first-ever speech at the club. He gathered me around and told me what the Johari Window was all about, and it was so fascinating to me at the time that even now, years later, it is something I’ve never forgotten. Let’s get into the finer details of this concept of the Johari Window, shall we?
What is the Johari Window?
The first question that crops up is ‘What is this Johari Window!?‘ It is a concept developed by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham. It is a tool for Self Awareness. The term ‘Johari’ is the amalgamation of ‘Jo’ from Joseph and ‘Hari’ from Harrington. How well do you know yourself? You have a perception of yourself, but is it just limited to that? Is it as simple as that?
You have a perception of yourself. You interact with multiple people, who form their own perceptions about you. What if the two contradict or overlap? What is it that defines you in that case? To understand this, the concept of the Johari Window comes into the picture.
What does the Johari Window represent?
Now, the next question would be, what is this concept of the Johari Window, and how it brings about self-awareness? Let’s dig into it.
Consider a window having four panes. Each of these panes represents an aspect of yourself. What do these panes represent:
- Arena/open self: What falls under this pane is your personality as perceived by you and others. This is the area where the most scope for communication lies, as our traits are open and known to others as well.
- Blind Spot/Blind Self: This pane contains aspects of yourself as perceived by others, but not by you. This refers to the characteristics that your peers observe or perceive about you, that you may not be aware of.
- Façade/Hidden Self: This refers to the aspects known only to you and no one else; that is well-guarded secret by you which you prefer.
- Unknown Area/Unknown Self: There are some aspects known neither by you nor the others, referred to as the unknown, the mysterious aspects that you or your peers may not be aware of.
The representation of the four window panes, the Johari Window is represented by the image shown below:
What are the uses of the Johari Window?
Now that you know what the Johari Window is, let’s see how it can be a helpful tool.
- Personal Growth: Using Johari Window, you can better understand yourself, understand other’s perceptions of you; use the feedback to improve yourself, and avoid conflicts. You can communicate with your family and friends and obtain constructive feedback, which can help your personality development.
- Professional Growth: The Johari Window, apart from personal growth, can also aid in your professional life. To use this concept, to exchange relevant information, understand the values to aid the business in its growth, and not mention also progress in your career.
- Communication: Given your understanding of the Johari Window, also provides an opportunity to communicate effectively, avoid conflicts, boost your interpersonal relationships, or even develop leadership skills.
If I were to give an instance of how this relates to real life, it would be this. For instance, the fact that I am talkative would be common knowledge to myself, my friends, my family, and all my other acquaintances (This here, relates to the ‘Open’ pane of the Johari Window). On the other hand, an experience of my life would be something personal to me (Come on! we all have such experiences 😛 ), that I strictly wouldn’t indulge with anyone; and this would pertain to the ‘Hidden’ pane of the Johari Window.
For every instance, attribute, information, experience, you name it… it would fit into one of these panes of the Johari Window. You needn’t even be consciously thinking of how something fits into this Johari Window, trying to figure it out, but inadvertently, it is something that maps itself. But at the same time, you can use this concept to analyze or understand yourself, personally and professionally to decide how to build yourself, and how to present yourself and that’s something to think about.
The concept of the Johari Window is a very unique one. I hope this proves to be an interesting read and provides a good insight to better understand oneself, and to be true to yourself for Aristotle has rightly said “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”.
