1.7 Changing your Johari Window by getting feedback
The Johari window is a good way to think about the role of other people and our relationships with them. The window shows that other people are significant in two ways:
- If we share aspects of ourselves that increase our open area, this will decrease the size of the area that is unknown to others. Doing this enables other people to be in a better position to give us accurate (and more helpful) feedback. People do have to know something about us to give us information we can use
- We can learn from others in order to increase our open area and decrease our blind area.
There are many ways in which we can get feedback from others. Perhaps the most obvious is to get feedback in person, from someone you trust. However, you’ve also learned that it is possible to get ‘imagined’ feedback via the ‘ empty-chair’ technique. In the next activity you will try to expand the size of your Johari Window open area, and decrease the size of your blind area, by getting feedback from someone else.
Activity 7: Getting feedback from someone and changing your Johari Window
This activity has two options:
- Option 1 involves getting feedback from someone you know
- Option 2 involves getting some ‘imagined feedback’.
You should choose just one of these options:
- Option 1: Show the open area of your completed Johari Window to someone that you trust. Ask them whether they can add any information about your qualities, skills and/or knowledge, or offer a new perspective on the information that you have provided. Add any new information to your Johari Window diagram.
- Option 2: Choose an imagined feedback giver to sit in your ‘empty chair’. Think about what they might say in response to your current Johari Window open area. Might they add any additional qualities, skills or knowledge, or offer a new perspective? If so, add this additional information to your diagram.
Comment
Has the feedback you received, whether real or imaginary, increased the size of your Johari Window open area? If so, did it also decrease the size of your blind area? If so, you could change the sizes on your existing Johari Window diagram. Perhaps you decided to reveal something from your hidden area in order to get more useful feedback. If so, then you could change the size of your hidden area too.
Whenever you get additional feedback while studying Learning to learn you should revisit your Johari Window diagram and change it so that it reflects the new information about your skills, qualities and knowledge. Doing this will mean that by the end of the course you will have a valuable resource to use in your future personal development.