A Window on Your Self

The Johari window has been around since the middle of the last century. It is a tool to help people think about themselves, and how others see them. The term comes from the first names of the psychologists who developed it, Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham.

The first quadrant is the "open" space, with the things others know about us, and we also know about ourselves. The "hidden" space is that which we keep private: we are aware of these elements but chose to keep them secret with certain people.

In the "blind" space are those aspects that others know about me, but I don't see myself. These are my blind spots. I may think of myself as a strong decision-maker, but others might agree I do not genuinely listen to inputs. You cannot become aware about your blind spots by yourself. Discovering blind spots is difficult because our first reaction to discovering something unknown about ourselves, from someone else, will be denial. Or justification ... "Well, I might be like that but that's because ...".

For the "hidden" space, the choice is with us whether to disclose information about ourselves to the people we work with. For the "blind" space, it is up to others to decide whether they want to help us discover our blind space. It happens all too often that "everyone" in the office agrees that the boss does this or that, and lots of stories go around between the team members. Yet when you ask if anyone has ever given the feedback about this particular behavior, the reply is often that people assume the boss probably knows but does not care to change.

The word Jahori is made up from the names Joseph and Harrington. But apparently it is also a name in Swahili and means "something of value". Self-awareness is a key value in developing yourself. Self-awareness also includes discovering your blind space. Whether you manage to become aware of your blind space depends on the relations you have created with your team members, and how you make them feel about giving you feedback.