Despite having loved Donald Rumsfeld’s “unknown unknowns” for years, I only recently learned its origin: the Johari window.
The “window” is a 2×2 grid of four boxes with axes of “known to self” and “known to others.”
The Johari window was developed by two psychologists in the 1950s, Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham, as a tool to help people better understand how they relate to others. The exercise involves a person picking a set of adjectives from a list. This person’s peers or colleagues pick the same number of adjectives. Together, the group adds these adjectives to the grid.
- The arena is what you know about yourself and what others also know.
- The blindspot is what you don’t know about yourself that others know.
- The facade is what you known about yourself that others don’t know.
That leaves one final box: the unknown. The unknown is what you don’t know about yourself that others also don’t know.
It struck me that the Johari window approximates the basic challenge of any project involving a problem and design solution. Let’s use architecture as an example, because that’s what I’m familiar with.
So, let’s shift the axes from “known/not known to others” and “known/not known to self” to “known/not known to architect” and “known/not known to owner.”
- The arena is what architect and owner know about the project.
- e.g. “We need to design a new house.”
- The blindspot is what the architect doesn’t know that the owner does.
- e.g. “The owner has a car collection, so they need a huge garage.
- The facade is what the architect knows that the owner doesn’t know.
- e.g. “The owner may have trouble with building height restrictions.”
And, of course, there are the unknowns about the project. What will the subcontractor market look like six months from now? Will there be any issues permitting a 20-car garage on this lot?
But the basic premise holds: the focus is on moving “hidden” knowledge into the arena for everyone—architect and owner.
Taylor Coe 