How to Use Mental Scaffolding to Minimize Your Biggest Weakness

We all use mental scaffolds. They're simple concepts that you can use to solve tough problems, explore relationships, and learn more about yourself. A to-do list is one. It helps us prioritize tasks that need to be accomplished. A country's financial system is another. It's what allows us to wrap our heads around the idea that a piece of paper can be worth $1, or $100. I love mental scaffolds.

The Johari Window is a scaffold I learned about recently. It was created in 1955 by two modern-day philosophers, Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. It's designed primarily to help a person map out their self-awareness, but it has many helpful applications in business.

The concept is simple: any type of information in the world falls into one of these categories.

Box	Description
1	Something that everyone knows, the Earth being round, for example. -
2	Something you know that nobody else does, like your gym locker combination. -
3	Something you don't know that someone else surely does, like the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow. -
4	Something nobody knows, like the meaning of life.

Each bit of information varies in importance, specificity and context. In business, this can be a very helpful tool in determining where institutional knowledge is highest, how to mitigate single points of failure, how to negotiate, and how to understand a prospective customer's viewpoint.

Ultimately, the goal is to maximize BOX 1 while minimizing BOX 4.

If you're an entrepreneur, let's determine what business area you know the least about. Draw the Johari Window on a piece of paper. Start at BOX 1 and move along to BOX 4.

Step 1

a. In BOX 1, write down what you know that others in the company do, too. For example, your product pricing; the segments you're targeting; your company's mission. This is the good stuff. If your company is all about transparency, you want to fill this box with as many items as possible. -

b. In BOX 2, write down what you don't know that others in the company do. For example, who in the company is thinking of quitting, or what the least effective marketing tactic is. This is your personal blind spot. The way to remove items from this list is to ask questions. For each item, think about questions you can ask to move it to BOX 1. -

c. In BOX 3, write down what you know that others don't. For example, the salaries for all your employees, the long-term vision of the company, your biggest personal fear. The way to remove items from this list is to tell people about them. The goal here is not to eliminate every item, as it may not be appropriate to do so (salaries, for example). For something like a company vision, it's clear that everyone in the company should know what direction they're headed in, so talk about it. -

d. In BOX 4, write down what you don't know that others in the company don't either. For example, what competitors are about to enter the market, when a big deal is going to close, or that there's an asteroid the size of a VW Bus headed straight for Earth, and even Bruce Willis is unaware. This is the deep sea of information. There's a lot of stuff nobody knows. You can either ask questions outside the company, or tell others inside the company as you discover them. Information that lives here is useful for developing strategy overall. The more information you collect, the more informed your decisions will be.

Step 2

BOX 1: Celebrate! These are things that are intuitively understood by everyone in the organization.

BOX 2: Determine the questions you need to ask, and who knows the answers, to move the items into BOX 1.

BOX 3: Draft stories that allow you to communicate things that others should know. NOTE: BOX 3 should never be empty. There are items that simply shouldn't be shared. But think about what makes you feel vulnerable that should be shared, like threats or weaknesses in the organization that others might not be aware of, but that could be addressed if they were more widely known.

BOX 4: This is an ethereal area, and should have the largest list of items. Determine what you need to ask as an organization to strategize more effectively, and what you should project outwardly to inform others.

The Net Result

When done with this exercise, you should be keenly aware of the areas that need to be addressed urgently, and areas where you feel confident.

strategy, team dynamics, customer relationships, prospect conversations and vendor negotiations, but it's important to remember it's rooted in self discovery, which has the biggest benefit in positive change.