Johari Window

The Johari window is a technique that helps people better understand their relationship with themselves and others. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft (1916–2014) and Harrington Ingham (1916–1995) in 1955, and is used primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings as a heuristic exercise.

Step by step guide Johari Window

Construct the Window	Draw or project a 2×2 matrix on a surface everyone can see. Label the columns, rows, and each quadrant
What’s Known to Self	Look at the list of adjectives, and pick five or six that you think describe you well. Don’t worry about sounding modest, just try to be honest.
What’s Known to Others	Repeat this process for the other members of the group, selecting a handful of adjectives you think describe them accurately.
Combine Knowledge	For each individual, combine the list of adjectives the group has generated. (You could include hash marks beside repeated words to signal a strong consensus about it.)
Fill in the Window Panes	Compare this list with the list the individual generated about themselves. Where an adjective appears on both lists, place it in the open quadrant. If an adjective appears on the individual’s list, but not the group’s, place it in the hidden quadrant. When an adjective appears on the group’s list, but not the individual’s, put it in the blind quadrant. Any adjective that appeared on neither list can go in the unknown quadrant.
Orientation	Spend a few minutes discussing the adjectives that appear in the open quadrant.
Disclosure	Ask an individual to disclose by talking about one of the adjectives they selected for themselves, but the group did not.
Feedback	Have the individual select one of the adjectives the group has identified but the individual did not. The group now has the opportunity to give some feedback to the individual about this adjective.
Discovery	Elect a few adjectives from the final quadrant. Does this adjective apply to the individual? Why did nobody pick it?

Johari window explanations

The Public Self The Public Self is the part of ourselves that we are happy to share with others and discuss openly. Thus you and I both see and can talk openly about this ‘me’ and gain a common view of who I am in this element. the Private Self There are often parts of our selves that are too private to share with others. We hide these away and refuse to discuss them with other people or even expose them in any way. Private elements may be embarrassing or shameful in some way. They may also be fearful or seek to avoid being discussed for reasons of vulnerability. Between the public and private selves, there are partly private, partly public aspects of our selves that we are prepared to share only with trusted others. The Blind Self We often assume that the public and private selves are all that we are. However, the views that others have of us may be different from those we have of ourselves. For example a person who considers themself as intelligent may be viewed as an arrogant and socially ignorant by others. Our blind selves may remain blind because others will not discuss this part of us for a range of reasons. Perhaps they realize that we would be unable to accept what they see. Perhaps they have tried to discuss this and we have been so blind that we assume their views are invalid. They may also withhold this information as it gives them power over us. The Undiscovered Self Finally, the fourth self is one which neither us or nor other people see. This undiscovered self may include both good and bad things that may remain forever undiscovered or may one day be discovered, entering the private, blind or maybe even public selves. Between the Blind and Undiscovered selves are partly hidden selves that only some people see. Psychologists and those who are more empathic, for example, may well see more than the average person. Four personas Associated with the Johari Window, we can define four different personas, based on which ‘self’ is the largest for each individual. The Open Persona Someone with an open persona is both very self-aware (with a small blind self) and is quite happy to expose their self to others (a small private self).    The Open person is usually the most ‘together’ and relaxed of the personas. They are so comfortable with their self they are not ashamed or troubled with the notion of other people seeing them are they really are. With a small Blind Self, they make less social errors and cause less embarrassment. They are also in a more powerful position in negotiations, where they have less weaknesses to be exploited. Becoming an Open Persona usually takes people much time and effort, unless they were blessed with a wonderful childhood and grew up well-adjusted from the beginning. It can require courage to accept others’ honest views and also to share your deeper self, plumbing the depths of the undiscovered self. The weaker side of the Open Persona is where they understand and share themself, but do not understand others. They may hence dump embarrassing information from their Private Selves onto others who are not ready to accept it. The Naive Persona The Naive person has a large Blind Self that others can see. They thus may make significant social gaffes and not even realize what they have done or how others see them. They hide little about themselves and are typically considered as harmless by others, who either treat them in kind and perhaps patronizing ways (that go unnoticed) or take unkind advantage of their naivety.    The Naive Persona may also be something of a bull in a china shop, for example using aggression without realizing the damage that it does, and can thus be disliked or feared. They may also wear their heart on their sleeves and lack the emotional intelligence to see how others see them. The Secret Persona When a person has a large Private Self, they may appear distant and secretive to others. They talk little about themselves and may spend a significant amount of time ensconced in their own private world. In conversations they say little and, as a result, may not pay a great deal of attention to others.   Having a smaller Blind Self (often because they give little away), the Secret Persona may well be aware of their introverted tendencies, but are seldom troubled about this. Where they are troubled, their introversion is often as a result of personal traumas that have led them to retreat from the world. The Mysterious Persona Sometimes people are a mystery to themselves as well as to other people. They act in strange ways and do not notice it. They may be very solitary, yet not introverted.    As the Mysterious Persona knows relatively little about themselves, they may be of low intelligence, not being able to relate either to themselves or to others. They may alternatively just prefer to live in the moment, taking each day as it comes and not seeking self-awareness. Some forms of esoteric self-development seek to rid oneself of concerns about the self in order to achieve a higher state of being. They may deliberately enter states of non-thinking and revel in such intuitive paradoxes as knowing through not knowing.

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