#83: Into the Great Unknown Known
This piece made me think about the call I had last week with my life coach. We ended up on the topic of my posture and how I'd like to practice keeping my shoulders back more. So she told me to stand up and to lift them really high to my ears, and then to deeply exhale as I roll them all the way back down. She inspires me to think more deeply about my daily, subconscious actions, and what I perhaps need to wake up to more. And Rob, your blog made me consider what the underlying unknown known is to why I have tense, raised shoulders. Like what do I do on a daily basis that contribute to this habit? What are my everyday patterns, that perhaps I refuse to truly know, that are unproductive and stress-inducing? Thank you, Rob, for inspiring a greater hunger for awareness that I can consider as I strive for more healthful and peaceful actions.
- Amanda
Robert Rose: Robert@contentadvisory.net
Into the Great Unknown Known
So, sixteen years ago, Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld famously said, “…there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say that there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
While I think we can all agree that Rumsfeld’s language was a bit clumsy, I’ve come to find out he was actually capturing a fairly well-known analysis technique called the Johari window. Put very simply there are four things that are challenges:
Things we know we know – The Known Known.
Things we know we don’t know – The Known Unknown.
Things we don’t know we don’t know – The Unknown Unknown.
Things we don’t know that we know – The Unknown Known.
Rumsfeld (and most everyone else who talks about this) only covered the first three. But it’s that last one that I’m fascinated with, and find myself working on at the moment….. Let me explain.
So – our day to day is the first type. We stay in our lanes, and practice the same well-worn concepts over and over again. We know we should get out of our ruts, or the patterns that deliver successful outcomes. They are all known.
Then there are the things we know that we don’t know. We’re quite aware that there are new things to understand, to go learn about. Addressing these things in our life is likely to be at the top of our to-do list, and make up our New Year’s resolutions.
Then, the things we don’t know that we don’t know are the surprising, or esoteric concepts that can throw us off track. Here, we may be caught off guard by some new development, or weird disruptive force. These are hard to plan for – but we certainly acknowledge they exist. We simply don’t know what we don’t know.
And then there’s this fourth category. And, man, do I now find that this is the most insidious of the challenges. It is the unknown known. Or, as it’s called in the Johari window – the “façade.”
I was reading about one philosopher who categorized the “unknown known” as when we “intentionally refuse to acknowledge that we know.” In Persian literature, there is the idea of one who knows, but doesn’t know that he or she knows. It’s said that this person is fast asleep, so you should wake them up.
As I’ve been doing more journaling and trying to recognize unfulfilling patterns I’m seeing this all the time. We do things simply because we’ve “always done them”. And, in many cases, we simply refuse to recognize that they are unproductive things. We simply refuse to know.
I’ve added this fourth category to my list as I set my goals and plans. Now I ask myself:
What old things should I continue or stop doing – I know what I know
What new things should I add or alter – I know what I don’t know
I need to explore and play and look for disruptive patterns – I don’t know what I don’t know
And then, I think, the fourth…
4. What unknown known do I need to acknowledge? What do I not know but in fact really already know? What do I need to wake up to (good or bad)?
It’s really well… The more I know…. 😊
~rr
Rob's first-person bio:
I teach marketers to be storytellers. My job is as chief strategy officer for The Content Advisory, a company focused on helping businesses transform their marketing departments into media companies. My biggest joy is to witness people realizing their creative potential.