Look at it through Johari window

I had a lot on my plate in the last week with some official and personal matters. Among all, attending my sister’s house-warming ceremony was also a compulsory matter.  It was an all-night religious activity. She had invited to very close kindred. Though I am loathed to attend such events, there was no way to miss it. Hence, I was there to mark my presence too.  

Apart from being in a busy atmosphere, that had been provided an opportunity for relatives to meet after several years. Undoubtedly, that opportunity was used by them to optimum and talk about anything as they wish.

While the religious activities were going on inside the house, visitors were having bull sessions in a tent built to accommodate people who burn the midnight oil until dawn.  After many short-length discussions, our clique was talking about their close call driving experiences.  One of my uncles was telling us about his experience of falling to sleep while he was driving.  Many others who were listening to this responded with their experiences and advice as well. Amidst all these talks, one person wanted to know something related to sleeping. That unexpected question was a point that turned the discussion is upside down.

“What organ of the body sleeps first when you badly need to sleep?”

This question was raised by one of my relatives, and it was sharp-edged to keep the whole area at pinpoint silence for a few seconds.

The silence was ended with a load of answers. Everyone rushed to tell an answer. Among the many of the mentioned body organs, my answer was the ball of the eye. Unfortunately, he did not accept any of our answers as correct.

In parallel to the refusals of our answers, we heated with a boiling interest to know the correct answer from this man runs a small business for livelihood.  

From the demographic point of view, the vast majority of that discussion group was knowledgeable or economically successful people. Ignoring such social or civil status, a simple question had turned all of them helpless. 

Johari Window Model

That atmosphere sparked my mind and recalled me about the “Johari Window” model. That situation and people's behavior was a real example of that model. All were acting their roles as explained in the model. How nice it to see things from a bird's view when all others trying to prove their viewpoint is correct and prove their intelligence. 

Johari window is a very impressive model to study to understand the importance of self-awareness in an environment where group activities and discussions are happening. It has been a widely discussed theory at interpersonal communication and social-behavioral platforms since it concentrates on an important part of individual perception and versatility of dealing with others. Two psychologists had been created this model in 1955 at California University. The name "Johary" has come to this model since it had been invented and developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham.

In my point of view, the Johari model has based on two legs. One leg is representing your knowledge. The Other leg represents your ability to acquire information from others. It pushes us to move beyond the two-way communication process. The Johari model brings some very essential characteristics into the limelight that needed for effective interpersonal communication. This signifies having trustworthy, intelligent, efficient, and effective relationships for exchanging useful information between two persons or more perhaps. Without the above personal traits were not worked as signifiers, the acquisition of the trust of the other person will not be an easy task. Revealing your information about yourself through feedback by others is a consequence of the first action's success.

This model suggests four areas to concentrate on when acquiring knowledge or expressing knowledge. Every person has an area they can work with confidence. It calls an open area to that particular person. Perhaps, that person may perform alone within that frame, since he or she is well aware of all matters in that area. Except for this area, there are three more areas to be concerned by everyone. In the Johari window model, these areas are called hidden, blind, and unknown areas.

I suppose the person who asked about the human organ that leads the person to sleep raised a question that belongs to the area not open to any of in the clique. Unfortunately, it was not an era available easy access to the internet too. Hence, all had been stuck in their blind, hidden, or unknown areas with that question.

When all the big people in a helpless state, that man became the star in the scene. Among the people who are known what is not known to them, this person was a pretentious expert since he knew an answer. In a scenario, if all are blind and unknown something, even a wrong may become a correct one. That was what happened there.

According to that person, the answer was the ear. He said, “before the eyes close our ear stops sending messages to the brain”.

Until now, I did not check the answer is correct or wrong. I was mostly inspired by the Johari Window Model experience rather than finding its accuracy. 

What body part sleep first? .. Ears...!!! I don’t know what I don’t know...😀😀  But I know, Johari The window Model works well even after seven decades. 💪👌👍