Johari Window

I discovered today that the concept of Johari window closely reflects my decision to join the Public Relations course at Xavier Institute of Communications.

Johari window is a psychological tool which helps people to better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships. The movement in the window marks the growth in a relationship and these windows are divided into four quadrants, namely: open, blind, hidden and unknown quadrant.

The open quadrant represents things that I know about myself and others know about me. Initially when we meet someone new, quadrant I is small but with time as the process of getting to know each other continues, it expands in size, shrinking the quadrant III which is the hidden quadrant. The blind quadrant is the one which represents things that others would know about me but I would be unaware of.

The third quadrant is the hidden one where there are things which I know about myself but others don’t know. For example if I never mentioned to anyone before that I sing, then no one would get to know about the same. But once the first quadrant grows, that is when the relationship matures, and then we find it unnecessary to hide such information. The last quadrant is the unknown quadrant which represents things which I don’t know about myself and nor do people know about it.

The concept of Johari window relates very closely to my recent introduction to the arena of Public Relations (PR) and admission to Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC). For the past three years, I was trapped in a profession for which I did not have a natural passion and it was only recently that my friends introduced me to the world of Marketing Communications. This situation relates to the quadrant II, the blind spot and it was constant persuasion by my friends that helped me recognize my natural inclination towards Public Relations.

While I was initially hesitant to make this transition, I became sure of my abilities when I cleared the written exam of XIC. I can hence relate this concept to my personal experience and it’s been enlightening to learn about the other quadrants of this window.