Welcome back to the next blog post in the series of Process Facilitation Basics. Before we start I have few Questions from the previous blog post “Process Facilitation Basics – Base” that I want you to reflect on. The reflection is a crucial part in the Facilitation and I just want you to start reflecting upon what you have read earlier. Obviously I will be describing Reflection in the coming blog posts. You can write down the answers of the following questions in the comment section below or you can keep them and don’t share. I am happy as long as you try to reflect.
Q No 1: What happened when you read the post?
Q No 2: What did you feel about it?
Q No 3: What did you learn from it?
Q No 4: What did you learn about yourself?
Q no 5: What did you learn about others?
Q No 6: What did you learn about the group?
Above questions are for all sort of people. Try to answer as many questions as you can and before you answer reflect upon your answers and than write.
Now back to today’s topic that is Human relations and Communication. When we work in a team we communicate to move forward. Process Facilitation helps to ease the process of communication and allows you to ask relevant questions. Communication is with other people therefore understanding Human relations is a key block in mastering communication skills. Here is a fun part, in order to communicate with others and understand Human Relations, one has to understand the self image of himself.
There is a Divided self Image and there is Integrated self Image. The more you go towards Integration the more you know about yourself. Let me explain it with the help of a diagram.
By looking at the image above it is obvious that the more you integrate with your three selves the more you are able to know yourself. There is a Model to describe it in more easy way. The Model is known as Johari Window. I sense the smile on some faces right now as you know where I am going with this.
This Model is developed by two Psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham from university of California in 1950’s.
These two diagrams above explains the basics of today’s topic. So spend sometime with them and try to understand the message. 🙂
Any ways lets us see what is Johari Window. This Model is developed to explain relations. Lets start with the Arena.
The Arena
What I know about myself and what others know about me.
This is an area where we are going to be focusing on. Clearly we need to improve this area. I am not going to go into details or give examples as it is self explanatory. This area can be increased with trust in relationships and openness to others. Keep an example of a group working on a project. So being individual and as a whole you need to increase your Arena. You may be thinking that How? So the answer is simple: The Arena increases when your exposure and clarity in relationship to others increase at the same time as your sensitivity and listening to others increase and you receive feedback (will explain feedback and its pros and cons in later posts).
As a Result: A big Arena within a group increases the potential of the group to handle and carry out complex tasks.
The Blind Area
What I don’t know about myself but others know about me.
Many of you have experienced this situation and had no idea what to do and how to solve it? The situations like how You behave towards others, how You gesticulate, how You smell and Your attitude to others. And may be there are things that you don’t have the slightest idea about when it comes to yourself since you never thought about them.
The solution is very simple: By having other people giving you feedback on your behavior and attitude you can increase your arena and decrease your blind area.
The Hidden Area
What I know about myself and others don’t know about.
This is information about yourself that you choose not to tell to others and hide it from others. There are many reasons you do this, like you are shy, lack of confidence or simply proud. Things you are ashamed or are afraid of telling others and fear potential consequences by telling is most definitely be another reason.
Solve the Issue: You decrease your hidden area by telling others about yourself – what you think, feel and imagine. Do remember the situation you are in at the moment you are telling about yourself.
The Unknown Area
Things that nobody knows about you including yourself.
This may be because you have never exposed those areas of your personality, or because they’re buried deep in the subconscious. What ever the reason may be you need to remember this part of Johari Window and try to avoid it as possible as you can.
To Sum up I have some tips from my studies for you
Person with a big ARENA has best mutual interaction with others.
Person with a big ARENA has open approach and attitude that supports receiving and giving information from and to others.
As a result persons in your surrounding are less likely to misunderstand you or to misinterpret what you are communicating and same goes for you.
That’s it for now folks. 🙂 What? You need more… Wao, great audience 🙂
Okay here is a book that I was recommended to read and I can do the same. Google search Will Schutz or the book The Human Element. Its a great book to understand relations. I am adding a short video for you guys to enjoy and happy reading!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQt1jwgYrLI
The Book “The Human Elements” covers topics like FIRO Theory (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation), Basic social human needs, charts that cover Inclusion, Control and Openness and much much more.
Congratulations my dear reader to come all the way down here. Today you reflected on the previous blog post on the 4 rules of Process Facilitation and read about Human Relations and Communications. Now sit back, relax, close your eyes and take all this in. Think what you have read and reflect upon it and this time you don’t have to write. Just think and relax.
Please feel free to add comments and have discussions with me. Subscribe to get the posts regularly and never have to miss any. See you in the next post…
Imran