Johari window application in risk

management
riskope.com/2017/06/21/johari-window-application-risk-
management

June 21, 2017

Jun 21st, 2017

Johari window application in risk management is an exploration of

possible corporate application of a therapeutic tool. The psychologists
Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham developed the tool back in 1955.

The Johari window became world-renown when US Secretary of

Defence Rumsfeld quoted parts of it. You probably remember the known
unknowns and the unknowns you do not know you don’t know in an
“intelligence” talk.

The Johari window and its original

meaning
The Johari window is a four squares graph shown in the picture below.

We show in the graph

the original
(psychological)
“reading” of the
window:
 The Arena corresponds to the realm of what we see/perceive and
the others see/perceive.
For example: I am… happy with my job and my colleagues AND
the others (my family, friends and colleagues) see and
understand I am… happy with my job.
The Blind-spot is when others see what I cannot see.
For example: John is… so unhappy with his job, but he thinks
he is… happy because ……., he actually does not want to
see….
The Facade is the realm of what we know and see, but others
don’t.
For example: It’s the realm of our secrets, that we do not want
the others to see/know.
The Unknown is where neither we nor the others know.
For example: John is willing to try a new experimental
treatment for his condition.

In therapy the idea is to expand the Arena at the expenses of Blind-spot

and Unknown resulting in greater knowledge of one-self. During the
process the voluntary disclosure of privacy (i.e. the reduction of the
Facade) may result in greater interpersonal intimacy and friendship. We
depict the final result in the picture below.

Let’s see if Johari

window application in
risk management,
applied to to the
corporate risk
management realm
makes sense.

The Arena is where

we find corporate
“Known knowns”. These are “facts” and likely the realm of service
life/operational “incidents”, stuff that we all know occurs time to time.
These can also be uncertainties, when their probability is “one” and the
only parameter that can vary is the magnitude (Forex variations,
temperature variation of n sigma bounds around the average etc….).
These being “facts of life” or “business as usual” generally SoP and
“rules” deal with them. Thus they should not clutter risk registers. They
are not part of risk management which can be defined as what we do to
prepare for the Unexpected…(events that provoke n+ sigma bounds
divergence from the average).

Risk assessments should start by

recognizing that the absence of
evidence is not evidence of absence
Risk assessments should start by recognizing that the absence of
evidence is not evidence of absence: if something has “never” occurred
it does not mean it does not exist (do not censor hazardous scenarios).

Blind spots is where we find “Known Unknowns”. These are

unexpected evolutions of known events: they should be considered as
visible emerging risks. An example could be social media: their
existence was known, but no one imagined their lighting flash and wide
spread development. However a risk assessment should have
considered them as emerging. The same applies for the Twin Towers-
Airplane collision. The original design reportedly considered it, but
everyone “forgot” with time.

Facade is where we find corporate “Unknown Knowns”, i.e. issues

management prefers not to see, not to know. Companies that keep
playing rosy scenarios and censoring their risks have a strong Facade.

Finally we reach the realm of the true Unknown, i.e. the Unknown
Unknowns. These are issues we truly do not know we do not know…
and only swift adaptive management can solve these….i.e. working with
a sustainable, highly resilient system.
The similarities with the personal applications of the Johari window and
its original meaning are striking.
Closing notes
Appropriate Risk Assessment and Management quite obviously expand
the corporate Arena at the expenses of Blind-spot and Unknown. Johari
window application in risk management actually works in the corporate
life.

The voluntary disclosure of privacy (i.e. the reduction of corporate

“hidden agendas”) may result in greater Social Licence to Operate
(SLO) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The links with the
requirements of disclosure in the mining industry (NI 43-101) are
obvious.

The Johari window helps explaining while commonly accepted

procedures like censoring risks to “credible failure” leads to misleading
results and painful overexposures.

Once the risk approach is “cleaned-up” of as many biases and censures

as possible it becomes evident that many events that are categorized as
“Black Swans” actually aren’t.

Tagged with: CSR, Johari window application, known unknowns, NI 43-

101, risk assessments, Risk Management, SLO, The Blind-spot, The
Facade

Category: Risk management

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