Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers

User menu

  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
British Journal of General Practice
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
  • Listen to BJGP podcast
  • Subscribe BJGP on YouTube
British Journal of General Practice
Intended for Healthcare Professionals

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
Out of Hours

Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt

Simon Morgan
British Journal of General Practice 2016; 66 (643): 89. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp16X683617
Simon Morgan
NSW, Australia.
Roles: GP and Medical Educator
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Not long ago I was in Heathrow Airport when an anonymous traveller approached me and asked, ‘Do you mind if I take a photo of your T-shirt?’ I replied, ‘Which one?’, thinking of my collection of much-loved, short-sleeved casual cotton tops back in Australia (Tin Tin in Vietnam is a particular favourite).

Looking somewhat nonplussed, she replied, ‘Sorry, I meant the one you’re wearing.’ I was clad in a black T-shirt with the words ‘I AM UNCONCIOUSLY INCOMPETENT’ on the front. (I had deliberately worn it for the long-haul flight from Sydney to London so that I wouldn’t be mistaken for the pilot at any point. It appeared to work.) I said, ‘Sure, but do you mind if I leave it on?’ I think at that point she regretted initiating contact.

Actually, that story isn’t entirely true. A woman did ask to take a photo of my T-shirt in Heathrow, and it was that T-shirt, but the rest of the dialogue was fabricated.

That said, the real story was pretty noteworthy in its own right. After I actually responded in a far less cryptic manner than described above, the woman explained, ‘It’s just that I use that expression in my student teaching all the time.’

I detected a stirring of recognition in my gut (it was either that or the indeterminate airline dessert I had foolishly eaten a few hours previously), and asked, ‘Tell me, were you a keynote speaker at a medical education conference in Australia about 12 months ago? I think I know you!’

She was, and I did — she was an academic from Canada who had given a plenary session on faculty development at a pre-vocational medical education conference in my home town.

Even though I had just spent 24 hours half-circumnavigating the globe, I said, without a hint of irony, ‘Small world!’ She took the photo and disappeared into the food hall.

A colleague had purchased the catalytic T-shirt through the internet a couple of years previously for the very same reason as my airport acquaintance. As part of a GP trainer professional development session on the use of random case analysis as a formative assessment tool, we would discuss the concept of ‘unknown unknowns’, colloquially known as ‘Rumsfeldisms’.

Every good educational session needs a framework from which to hang its hat, and ours was the so-called ‘Johari window’, the two-by-two table of knowns and unknowns.1

The Johari window is essentially a communication model used to improve understanding between individuals.2

The origin of the word Johari is worth a mention. I initially thought it was named after a city in India, say, where the idea had been developed, equivalent to the Dayton Peace Accords or the Melbourne Manifesto. It is, however, an amalgamation of the first syllable of the first names of its two inventors, Joe and Harry.

As an aside, two medical education colleagues of mine, Wanda and Kerry, were considering the same idea for naming a feedback model they had developed, but I managed to talk them out of it.

So, we worked up a little skit as part of our presentation where my co-presenter would ask me how I thought the workshop was running and, as he revealed my apparent ‘unconscious incompetence’ about a supposedly disengaged group of participants at the back of the room, we would both unbutton our shirts to reveal the catchphrase T-shirts underneath. It always got a laugh.

On reflection, we may not have taught them anything, but at least we were memorably uninstructive. I mean, who wants to be unmemorably instructive! Or worse still, unmemorably uninstructive?

So there seems to be accumulating evidence that the humble T-shirt is effective as a communication tool. So much so, that I am thinking of marketing my own line of consultation-themed T-shirts. How about, ‘I’m not ignoring you, this is a diagnostic pause.’ Or, for those undergraduate placements: ‘I’m with student.’

Imagine the effect of wearing a fluorescent T-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Diagnosis or bust!’, or a pastel V-neck stating: ‘That sounds really troubling.’ But my personal favourite, and I reckon my potential bestseller, would be: ‘I am comfortably uncertain.’

  • © British Journal of General Practice 2016

REFERENCES

  1. 1.↵
    1. Halpern H
    (2009) Supervision and the Johari window: a framework for asking questions. Educ Prim Care 20(1):10–14.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  2. 2.↵
    1. MindTools
    The Johari window Using self-discovery and communication to build trust, https://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/JohariWindow.htm (accessed 11 Jan 2016).
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

British Journal of General Practice: 66 (643)
British Journal of General Practice
Vol. 66, Issue 643
February 2016
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Or,
sign in or create an account with your email address
Email Article

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from British Journal of General Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from British Journal of General Practice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt
Simon Morgan
British Journal of General Practice 2016; 66 (643): 89. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp16X683617

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt
Simon Morgan
British Journal of General Practice 2016; 66 (643): 89. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp16X683617
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
    • REFERENCES
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

More in this TOC Section

  • The chronotherapy of hypertension: or the benefit of taking blood pressure tablets at bedtime
  • Every home should have one: the critical role of the research librarian
  • Fakery and science
Show more Out of Hours

Related Articles

Cited By...

Intended for Healthcare Professionals

BJGP Life

BJGP Open

 

@BJGPjournal's Likes on Twitter

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • All Issues
  • Online First
  • Authors & reviewers

RCGP

  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • BJGP Open
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Subscriber login
  • Activate subscription
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP: research
  • Writing for BJGP: other sections
  • BJGP editorial process & policies
  • BJGP ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Contact subscription agent
  • Copyright
  • Librarian information

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Life
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7400
Email: journal@rcgp.org.uk

British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners
© 2023 British Journal of General Practice

Print ISSN: 0960-1643
Online ISSN: 1478-5242