Model of Self-Awareness: Using Johari's Window to develop my Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness is a major factor which I will explore and delve into throughout my placement blog, and will hopefully develop an understanding as to why its important, and how it can benefit me. So what does it mean? Self-Awareness means having a clear perception of your personality, including your strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions. Self-Awareness also allows you to understand other people, how they perceive you, your attitude and your responses to them in the moment (pathwaytohappieness, n.d.). Its important for me to develop my self awareness because you are able to make changes in the thoughts and interpretations you make in your mind. 

Self-awareness is one of the attributes of Emotional Intelligence and an important factor in achieving success. In addition, understanding self-awareness is the first step in creating what you want and mastering yourself. Having self-awareness allows you to see where your thoughts and emotions are taking you. It also allows you to see the controls of your emotions, behaviour, and personality so you can make changes you want. Until you are aware in the moment of the controls to your thoughts, emotions, words, and behavior, you will have difficulty making changes in the direction of your life. (pathwaytohappieness, n.d.) 

      Therefore in order to develop my understand of self-awareness I will be using the 'Johari Window' (shown below), which addresses the degree to which individuals both receive and disseminate information. The model employs a grid with four regions that illustrate four levels of information exchange between individuals. The underlying concept of the Johari Window is that open, two way communication enhances interpersonal effectiveness and mutual understanding between individuals within a group, and that when information is mutually held and freely exchanged, organizational productivity will increase. 

As we can see in the model, there are four areas - The Arena which represents information that is known by-self and known-by-others (i.e., the information is mutually held and exchanged). This known-by-self and known-by-others region is the most productive area in which persons can operate within an organization. The aim in any group should always be to develop the 'open area' for every person, because when we work in this area with others we are at our most effective and productive, and the group is at its most productive too. The open free area, or 'the arena', can be seen as the space where good communications and cooperation occur, free from distractions, mistrust, confusion, conflict and misunderstanding (Business balls, n.d.). The Blindspot - This region of the grid represents information that is known-by-others but not known-by-self. For example, what others think of you, and what do you think they think about you. The Facade - This region represents information that is known-by-self but not known-by-others. This is information that could be useful to others but which we may purposely withhold, either because we wish to wield power over others by carving out an advantage for ourselves, because we fear that others might use the information to their advantage or to our disadvantage. The last section 'The Unknown' which refers to this region representing information that is not known-by-self and not known-bothers. This represents a collective Blindspot for everyone in the group. Potentially useful information that is not known by anyone in the organization is the stuff of which innovative breakthroughs could be made, if only certain key information were known and acted upon. 

        I will be using Johari's phases to develop my understanding of self-awareness and how I can develop my own self-awareness to improve my perception of my personality, my beliefs, and my emotions.

References:

Business balls. (n.d.). Johari window. Available: http://www.businessballs.com/johariwindowmodel.htm. Last accessed 1st February 2015.

pathwaytohappiness.. (n.d.). Self Awareness. Available: http://www.pathwaytohappiness.com/self-awareness.htm. Last accessed 1st February 2015.