Johari Window

‘Johari Window’ is an effective technique which when used appropriately provides valuable information regarding one’s own self and others, which is an important characteristic which every leader needs to possess to succeed. In 1955, Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham, two American psychologists developed a model called the ‘Johari Window’. ‘Johari Window’ is a model for self-awareness, personal development, group development and understanding relationship. They called the model ‘Johari Window’ after combining their first names, ‘Joe’ and ‘Harry’.

The ‘Johari Window’ is a simple and useful tool for understanding and training self-awareness, group dynamics, personal development, interpersonal relationships, improving communications between people, team development and intergroup relationships.  It is a very useful tool especially so because it lays emphasis on and influences 'soft' skills, behavior, cooperation, inter-group development, empathy and interpersonal development.

The ‘Johari Window’ is also referred to as a 'disclosure/feedback model of self awareness', and an 'information processing tool'. The ‘Johari Window’ represents information regarding within or about a person or in relation to their team about feelings such as, experience, views, attitudes, skills, intentions, motivation, etc. from four different perspectives. It can also be used to represent the same information for a team in relation to other teams.

Conducting a ‘Johari Window’ Analysis is a very simple process, where the participant of the exercise is given a list of 56 adjectives and he/she is asked to choose 5-6 of them which best describes their personality. On the other hand, peers of the participant are given the same list and each of them are asked to choose 5-6 adjectives which best describe the participant, all of these chosen adjectives are then mapped onto a 4 x 4 grid.

The aim in any team is to develop the 'open area' for every person. This is because when we work in this area with others we are at our most effective and productive, and the team is at its most productive too.