Jack Dikian
July 2003
ABSTRACT
This article describes the use of Johari windows in Conflict Resolution, Negotiation and Team Building
Introduction
The Johari Window model also known as the “Johari Window” demonstrates the process of giving and receiving feedback, improving self-awareness, personal development, group development and understanding relationships between individuals within a group.
Psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham developed the window in 1955, while researching group dynamics at the University of California Los Angeles. The model was first published in the Proceedings of the Western Training Laboratory in Group Development by UCLA Extension Office in 1955, and was later expanded by Joseph Luft.
The Johari Window model is especially relevant today as a communication model that can be used to improve understanding between individuals within a team or in a group setting where emphasis is increasingly placed on, and influence of soft' skills, behaviour, empathy, cooperation, and inter-group development.
The three key ideas behind the tool:
- That individuals can build trust between themselves by disclosing information about themselves – self-disclosure and exposure,
- That they can learn about themselves and come to terms with personal issues with the help of feedback from others – this is feedback solicitation,
- The team collectively are unaware of feelings, latent abilities, aptitudes and experiences and through collective or mutual discovery, can help people to fulfil more of their potential, achieve more, and contribute to organisational performance.
