Johari Window: October 2011

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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Johari Window: Management Game

For loads of excellent literature in the form of eBooks, printed books and blogs refer: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/

Refer high quality Management eNotes http://management-enotes.blogspot.com/

For free tutorials on “Train the Trainers” program, refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/

Johari Window: Original Management Game/Management Exercise

(For better understanding, read the older post before reading this post at http://johari-window-model.blogspot.com/2011/09/johari-window.html)

Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham, creators of Johari Window concept and model had devised an exercise/game to illustrate their “Johari Window”.

You, as a management trainer or workshop coordinator, can use that game with lots of advantage to your seminar/workshop participants. This exercise is best used to explain the concept and model “Johari Window”. It is a very effective exercise on “self-awareness”, “introspection” and “self-improvement”. It explains the concepts of “feedback” and “disclosure” as well as the four well-known quadrants of Johari Window.

The exercise is best suited for training programs titled “enhancing professional and personal effectiveness”, “creativity unlimited”, “personality development”, “self-improvement”, “Johari Window”, “organizational development” etc.

The exercise is explained below:

In this exercise, in all 56 adjectives are selected to completely describe a human being. These adjectives are given below and are arranged in an alphabetic order:

Able
Accepting
Adaptable
Bold
Brave
Calm
Caring
Cheerful
Clever
Complex
Confident
Dependable
Dignified
Energetic
Extroverted
Friendly
Giving
Happy
Helpful
Idealistic
Independent
Ingenious
Intelligent
Introverted
Kind
Knowledgeable
Logical
Loving
Mature
Modest
Nervous
Observant
Organized
Patient
Powerful
Proud
Quiet
Reflective
Relaxed
Religious
Responsive
Searching
Self-assertive
Self-conscious
Sensible
Sentimental
Shy
Silly
Smart
Spontaneous
Sympathetic
Tense
Trustworthy
Warm
Wise
Witty

This list of 56 adjectives is displayed in front of the participants who wish to subject themselves for introspection and feedback. Participants can request for explanation or meaning of the adjectives not clear to them. Each participant is then requested to pick up five or six adjectives out of this list that describe their own personality as per their own assessment. As the next step the participants are requested to pick up five or six adjectives that describe each of their fellow participants. These adjectives are then mapped by each participant onto the four partitions or quadrants of Johari Window in the following manner.

First quadrant: Open self: Adjectives that are selected by both the participant himself and his fellow participants are pooled together and placed in the “open self” compartment of Johari Window. These adjectives are those adjectives or traits of the participant that both he and his fellow participants are knowing.

Second quadrant: Hidden self: Adjectives selected only by the participant himself but not by any of his fellows, are placed into the “hidden self” compartment. This information about the adjectives of the self are known only to the participant and the fellow participants do not know about them. The participant himself will have to bring these traits of his into the open and put them to use.

Third quadrant: Blind self: Adjectives that are not selected by participant himself but only by his fellows are placed into the “blind self” compartment. These are those adjectives that the participant is not knowing but others know about them. The participant can decide to invite the feedback on these from his fellow participants so that he starts knowing about his additional qualities he possess but has not used them so far.

Fourth quadrant: Dark self: Adjectives that were not selected by either participant or by his fellow participants will be placed in the “dark self” compartment. These qualities of the participant were not recognized by anyone who participated in this exercise. the concerned participant will have to take a close look at these adjectives and make a plan of action to develop some of these qualities as per his requirements.

You will now instruct the participants on making a plan of action based on this kind of mapping. They should pick up some of the adjectives/qualities that they found in their hidden self, blind self and dark self and make a plan to start putting them to use. They should specify a time line for implementing this plan of action. Also they should specify how they will use those qualities.

You can provide them necessary guidance to shape up and finalize their plan of action.

Now have a few participants make presentations of their plan of actions to you and to the rest of the participants. Make your comments after each presentation to further improve their action plan.

Wrap up the exercise by wishing the participants best of luck for implementation of their action plans.

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

(Also read Shyam Bhatawdekar’s “out of box thinking” articles at: http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/)

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Get your copy/copies of our books online from Nuubuu and Amazon.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Johari Window in Action: Management Case Study 2

Management Anecdotes http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/
Training Works http://shyam.bhatawdekar.net/index.php/2010/01/15/training-works/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.net/index.php/2010/01/15/training-works/
Johari Window in Action http://shyam.bhatawdekar.net/index.php/2010/01/23/johari-window-in-action/ or http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/2010/01/johari-window-in-action.html
Leadership Means Making Ordinary People Do Extraordinary Things http://shyam.bhatawdekar.net/index.php/2010/02/03/leadership-means-making-ordinary-people-do-extraordinary-things/ or http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/2010/02/leadership-means-making-ordinary-people.html

This particular case study belongs to the similar genre.

You may recall a few things about the concept called “Johari Window” propounded by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. My wife and I were explaining this very concept in a six days long executive development training program in one of the units of one huge conglomerate. We are management consultants of pretty decent repute and therefore, often called upon to conduct various training programs for the executives of a large number of corporations. That keeps us pretty busy.

So, in one of such sessions, my wife whose treatment of “Johari Window” is excellent, explained as to how a human mind is described in “Johari Window” as a window with four types of compartments. She mentioned that these compartments are termed as:

Open self (or arena)
Hidden self (or facade)
Blind self (or blind spot)
Dark self (or unknown)

While these four compartments of the mind present a very potent aspect of creativity of human mind which in a way is “unlimited”, the pity is that average human beings do not use even 2% to 3% of the capabilities of the mind. And it is true that either you use it or lose it. So, most of the people lose it. It is often quoted that creativity of seminal order gets unleashed from the human mind, at just about 15% to 16% usage of the human mind.

In order to increase the usage of human capabilities and creativity, we, in our training seminars, advise the participants to open up their hidden talents (those that are kept hidden in the hidden compartment of the mind and never used). We advise them to explore within themselves their hidden talents and scoop them out into the open compartment of the mind where they can then be used. This process is called “disclosure” of the hidden talents to the entire world.

We also advise them to constantly get the feedback of their talents and creativity from other people. Often times, the person himself may not be aware of many of his talents, in a way he is blind towards them. Many a time, these talents lying dormant in you are seen easily by the on-lookers. So, through a process of explicit and implicit “feedback” from others, you are likely to identify your talents towards which you were blind earlier. Now, having got them from the other persons, you can bring such talents in the open compartment of mind and start using them.

These explanations are quite revealing and create a positive stir and tension in the minds of the participants of our training seminars. They trigger their adrenaline flow and suddenly they feel motivated to embark on something that they never did before.

This is what exactly happened to Vishnu Jadhav who was sitting right in the front row in the seminar hall.

At the conclusion of the session, he met my wife and me privately and made an unusual request, “I am enlightened by what madam explained. As a result, I was introspecting myself throughout your lecture, particularly about my hidden talents. I think that I can become a very good artist. Like, I know how to sing, do a one act play, can be a good standing comedian. I think that given an opportunity, I can be a good entertainer. But till date, it has all been about only bath room singing. I never came out in the open to display these talents of mine. Madam mentioned that one should start using one’s talents soon after he realizes their existence within. And to start with, you advised that one should test these talents preferably in front of the known devils. Even if you make mistakes, the known audience will understand you better and humorously laugh it out. I, therefore, request you to give me about half an hour of your seminar time tomorrow morning. I wish to present a variety entertainment program tomorrow morning in this same conference room and experience for myself as to how it feels like coming out into the open.”

My wife and I looked at each other. It was quite an unusual request. We were retained by our client to run a training seminar and not organize an entertainment event. Initially we thought that it might not look professionally appropriate to allow Vishnu Jadhav to carry out this kind of entertainment program. Then both of us conferred with each other and came to the conclusion that if we denied this opportunity to Vishnu Jadhav, the spark that was created in him due to our coaching might die out. Why not take a bit of risk and allow Jadhav to present his entertainment program? We gave our positive nod to him. He was highly thankful to us.

We came to know later on that Jadhav took it very seriously as if it was a matter of life and death for him. He did rehearsals and even dress rehearsal throughout that night so as to present an impeccable entertainment program. And he did so. He gave a flaw less variety entertainment and kept the audience enthralled- to the extent that he got a standing ovation from the audience who spoke out saying that they never knew this hidden talent of Jadhav. They knew him as a diploma engineer of the organization and not an artist of such high caliber.

And that proved to be the starting point of the long journey Vishnu Jadhav embarked on as a first class entertainer. From time to time, he reports his progress to us by making it a point to meet us whenever we visit this client company. Also, we get the reports of his progress from other participants.

At this stage, he has organized his entertainment group on a professional footing. He advertises in the newspapers and gets invited to present his variety entertainment programs in different towns and cities. He and his group are becoming increasingly popular. He has started writing lyrics of his own songs. He has also become a news reader on one of the local television channels of the city where he lives. And he told us in his last meeting with us that he had many mare things up his sleeves.

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

(Also read Shyam Bhatawdekar’s “out of box thinking” articles at: http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/)

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Get your copy/copies of our books from Nuubuu and Amazon.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Friday, October 7, 2011

Johari Window in Action: Management Case Study 1

For loads of excellent literature in the form of eBooks, printed books and blogs refer: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/
Refer high quality Management eNotes http://management-enotes.blogspot.com/

For free tutorials on “Train the Trainers” program, refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/

Johari Window in Action: Management Case Study 1 (Hidden Talent Changed People's Life)

(For better understanding, read the previous post before reading this post at http://johari-window-model.blogspot.com/2011/09/johari-window.html)

My wife and I are management consultants and are often invited by many organizations in the corporate sector to conduct various kinds of management development and personal development training programs for their employees at different levels, right from shop floor workers to directors of companies.

This incident relates to one such program we conducted for a factory site of an Indian corporate conglomerate located in a remote interior village of India. The training program was meant for the factory’s workers who were never exposed to any kind of formal training earlier. So, they were quite excited about it and equally awed.

One session of the program was devoted to the well known management concept called “Johari Window”. My wife’s treatment to this particular topic is a treat to the audience. So, I always request her to teach the “Johari Window” sessions.

In the particular training program that we conducted for the workers of this factory, the topic rolled out like this. My wife said:

“The human actions are guided by the mind and therefore, knowing about our mind is very crucial. It’s difficult to visualize the mind but “Johari Window” describes the mind in a very simple to understand manner. Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham gave a pictorial definition of mind through their “Johari Window”. They mentioned that mind is like a window with four partitions; each partition with different kinds of glass panes- one transparent, other two allowing one way vision (like through a tinted glass) and fourth partition has opaque glass.

The first one with transparent glass is called “open self (or arena)” of the mind, being transparent to self as well as to others. Whatever is contained in this portion of the mind is a common knowledge to all. For example, my published bio-data gives some specific information about me and that information is known to me and to all those who have seen my bio-data. Certain of the strengths and the weaknesses of a person come out into the open and while these strengths can be used, the weaknesses can be reduced.

Second portion of the window depicting the mind, with the tinted glass, is from where you can peep outside but you cannot look into it from outside. This partition is called the “hidden self (facade)”. Hidden means that certain aspects of strengths and weaknesses are known to me alone, I am hiding them but they cannot be seen by others. Therefore, for me to be wiser on the knowledge of myself, I, on my own initiative, must start using my strengths by bringing them into the “open self (arena)” and reduce my weaknesses. This method is called “disclosure”.

Third portion of the window depicting the mind, again with the tinted glass, is where you can peep inside but from where you cannot look outside. This partition is called the “blind self (blind spot)”. Blind means that certain aspects of my strengths and weaknesses are known only to others but I am totally unaware of them, I am blind to them. Therefore, for me to be wiser on the knowledge of myself, I must get the feedback from others on such strengths and weaknesses of mine which are unknown to me. This method is called “feedback”.

Fourth portion with opaque glass is called “dark self (unknown)”. Large degrees of strengths and weaknesses are neither known to me nor to the others. We are, kind of, totally in dark about them. And apparently, I and others have no way of tapping them.

While “dark self” is a very large portion of mind (80%, 90% or even 95%), there are no solutions readily available on the platter to tap it. So what can be done immediately is to start using the strengths that are already available in “hidden self” and “blind self” and bringing more and more of them into “open self” by ways of “disclosure” and “feedback” explained earlier. More you use your “hidden” and “blind” strengths, more capable and effective you become. The “open self” should become larger and larger and “hidden self’ and “blind self” should become smaller and smaller.”

And the topic kept rolling like this.

The participants listened to all of this in a spell bound manner and asked many questions. The training program concluded pretty decently.

Then, my wife and I got busy with other assignments. Also, we used to visit this factory often.

In one of our later visits to this factory, say around six to seven months after we had conducted the training program for the batch of workers mentioned above, one of the workers from that batch came to the company’s guesthouse, where we were residing, in the evening.

The factory, as we told you, was situated in an interior village and the company had built up a nice township there. Other than this township, no civilization could be found as far as 30 to 40 kilometers from there. The township dwellers had to go all the way to the nearest town 30 to 40 kilometers away to buy their grocery, vegetables etc.

This worker came to us in the guesthouse, introduced himself and told us some very interesting things he did after he learnt about “Johari Window” in our training program that he had attended.

He said, “Madam and sir, when madam told that normally, we don’t use even 2% to 3% of our mind since most of it is taken up in our “dark self”, I started thinking about it seriously. Madam also told that if we could use our mind even a little bit more, we could achieve a lot more in life. Plus I remembered her saying that we keep hiding lots of our talent, knowledge and skills in our “hidden self” and do not use them and what we don’t use, we lose. I gave it lots of thought.”

My wife asked, “Do you have a piece of land nearby?”

He mentioned, “I have a very small plot of land in front of my small house allotted by the company. I was not using it till then. But that is not adequate. Then, it occurred to me that there were lots of my friends in the township who had plots of land in front of their house but they were not using them at all. I contacted them and most of them agreed to allow me to grow vegetables in their plots provided they can use the vegetables at concessional price. I agreed to it. And now I have already acquired some 14 plots for this purpose. I have employed couple of local hands and gave them employment as gardeners to look after these kitchen gardens that I have developed. Company has given me a small wooden cabin from where I sell the vegetables and the township residents are very happy about the whole thing. The ladies in the township can now walk up to my shop and buy fresh vegetables at reasonable prices.”

My wife and I congratulated him on his achievements.

But he stopped us in the middle and said, “It’s all because of the training you gave me that I thought about using “Johari Window” in actual practice. I am really thankful to both of you.”

Then, he walked away.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Get your copy/copies of our books from Nuubuu and Amazon.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/