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Jan 21, 2017

The Johari Window


The Johari Window has been a pretty interesting concept to me for quite some time now. That might be because I'm both interested in my own self awareness as well as this ongoing fascination I have about why people do the things they do and how they interact with each other. I find almost everything about people fascinating, yes almost everything. Even the weird stuff, the destructive but mostly how and why we treat others the way we do. I don't have to like it to be fascinated. I might not like everything but I'm still fascinated.

Back on subject, the Johari Window concept crosses in to this fascination of mine because it works with the very core of our being, our identity and how this presents in different realms. Using our understanding of the Johari Window helps us work towards better relations with others, stronger self development and a better overall understanding on our impact on others. From this greater sense of self awareness we should be able to acknowledge that the things that drive our motivations and responses to certain situations aren't as evident or obvious as we think they are. I could give an example of a whole bunch of scenarios to how that could be important or what exactly I'm talking about but its probably not necessary. I wouldn't want to make it sound more complicated than it really is. While the Johari Window is an important concept to acknowledge, it is in fact quite simple and maybe even a 'beginner's concept' when considering that other understandings and development can originate or platform from the model.

The Johari window looks at 4 domains of self- OPEN, BLIND, HIDDEN and UNKNOWN.

OPEN - refers to things that can be common, obvious or known knowledge about ourself and is usually easily verified as fact or at least are able to be known by others. These can be basic things like gender, age, skills, residence, awake or asleep, what general colour we would describe our hair. Yes anything can be complicated but it's not what Im thinking of. Get basic on this one. If you can complete a form with this information it's open.

BLIND- This can be anything that we aren't aware of for whatever reason, ANY reason. Blind also refers to the fact that it still can be see or known about us, just currently not by us. I guess sometimes our own behaviour and responses might be a bit more obvious to others. Do I think I'm great at my job, yet does my employer think I'm actually struggling? Am I actually more or less attractive than I actually think I am but can't see that because of poor self esteem or an impenetrable ego?

HIDDEN- This is what you definitely know about yourself but you hide from others. Am I actually insecure but I fake confidence. Do I have a secret fetish eating chocolate in bed but I tell people I hate the stuff? Do i present forward a loving character towards other human beings but in fact despise the human race. You name it, whatever it is. If it's your little secret it belongs in the HIDDEN domain.

UNKNOWN- Things that are fact about you but nobody knows. No one. Maybe this information was lost somewhere along the way, never to be found again or maybe it has never been known and never will be like how many times you farted in your sleep last night when no one was around or how many hours you have left to live.

These windows aren't always equilateral. Sometimes we can be more BLIND or OPEN or so forth. The information and knowledge of each area easily changes over time too. This can be by self discovery, being less secretive or technology (maybe one day there could be a machine that tells us how many times we farted last night -relax its just an example).

Whichever way you look at it, the main point is that theres always more to us, more than we acknowledge, more to us than others know and how much we share often differs but change can happen all the time. If you're interested in reading more about the Johari Window or what to do with it I have thrown some link on down here below.

The Johari Window.... Do you know who you are?

Till next time readers, stay cool.

-Mez

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