From the course: Teamwork Foundations

Use the Johari Window to understand yourself

From the course: Teamwork Foundations

Use the Johari Window to understand yourself

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- Really great teams have open communication. And I want to tell you about a model for this, which is known as the Johari Window. The two guys who invented it were called Joe Luft and Harry Ingham, and they named it after themselves. So it's just Joe and Harry, which they made into Johari. So on the horizontal axis we have what do you know about yourself? And then going down the page on the vertical axis, we have what others know about you, how much of the real you is known to others. Let's explore this part of the Johari Window now, and we will cover the other parts later in this course. So, if you think about it, how well do you know yourself? Now, since you live inside your head, you might at first assume that it's 100%. But let's do a little exercise. I want you to write down three words to describe yourself. So just do that now. Did you find that easy? Most people don't. And in fact, how can you know everything about yourself? You can't know how you would react in unknown situations. And then there's your future potential. But we'll come back to that in a minute. Now, what about what other people know about you? Would they guess the three words that you just wrote down? Just say out loud to me now, what percentage of the real you is known to your work colleagues? I find the answer to this varies from 10% to 90% when I ask this on training courses. So is it okay to only reveal 10% of yourself to your colleagues? Is 90% too much? Is it good to reveal most or all of yourself? Would Joe and Harry say yes? If a team's going to be great, everyone has to be open, completely open. Everybody's strengths need to be known so that they can be used. And everybody's weaknesses also need to be known so that they can be covered by the other team members. So this area of yourself that you haven't revealed, which is therefore known to you and not to other people, is known as what's behind your facade. And big facades are bad for team working. Ask yourself how you feel about people with big facades. You know that something is hidden behind that facade, but you don't know what it is, and that probably worries you. If they aren't being fully open with you, why should you be fully open with them? People with big facades find that most other people they deal with also have a large facade. It's not a good way to work, but it takes courage to reveal your true self. What if people don't like the real you? This fear is usually unfounded. They'll probably dislike your facade more. And in fact, you can only diminish yourself by having a facade. It's easy to hide bits, but it's very hard to add bits on that aren't really part of you. If you diminish yourself by hiding bits of yourself, you won't perform as well as you could do in your job. Be the real you.

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