Johari Window

Learning-on-the-Run 1: How might you structure 360° feedback to clarify at a glance, what is already known, what more might be disclosed and what might signal further reflection?

The Request. A director of a regulatory agency wanted to hold a retreat of her management staff. Her purpose was to build relationships by having a straight conversation among everyone, “to get it all out on the table”, as there were several “undiscussables” that needed open and candid attention. She expected each individual manager to create a written self-development plan emanating from the retreat discussions and that these plans would be transparent among the team with progress checks and follow-ups. The retreat would be an chance to give and get feedback in order to support each even more, and become more aligned about leadership decisions. They were also committed to begin planning follow-up retreats with each of their staff groups.

Larger Context. Two of the unit managers were constantly in disagreement based on leadership style, different discipline and customer service philosophy. This disagreement was evident in their respective teams. There was to be a follow-up retreat for both these service groups to help integrate the model and direction given to their regulated customers.

Consulting Intervention. After a leadership pre-meeting to build the guidelines, process and outcomes desired, we interviewed each manager individually. The interview questions essentially focused on their role, strengths and development possibilities as a leader as well as how their colleagues were contributing to or inhibiting themselves and the leadership team. In creating the summary document for each individual, we included many individual comments rather than only themes. We used our own judgment as to what to include. Our thinking was that including even one remark would allow the manager the opportunity to ask for additional feedback from everyone present at the retreat if they desired.

The structure we used for feedback was an adaptation of the Johari Window. It was arranged as follows:

Modified Johari Window for Providing 360° Feedback

Last Line. One way to structure feedback based on interview data is to use the Johari Window to organize the comments from the client and others. Download our case study.