Maybe we were witness to a very special kind of organizational courage. At the very least, we were witness to a remarkable movement of information about the Senior Vice President into Quad One and the sharing of this information at a critical time in the life of this senior executive group. The British school would offer a different perspective—suggesting that the courageous vice president was assigned the role of “courageous discloser” by the group. All members of the group (including the Senior Vice President) colluded (in a powerful but unconscious manner) to make the designated vice president disclosure (Quad One: External). The British school would thus propose that it was a matter of group dynamics, not individual courage.
Openness across Cultures
Johari Window has permeable boundaries—that is why I shifted terms in the New Johari Window from “blind” to “opaque” and from “hidden” to “protected.” The boundaries between Quad One and the other three quadrants may be stronger in many parts of the world than in the USA. Q1 in USA may be a “sham.” (“Y’all come out to the ranch.”) I personally experienced these cultural differences in personal boundaries and definitions of “openness” in my initial work with colleagues from Taiwan. I was teaching a group of Taiwanese executives at a San Francisco Bay Area graduate school.
As I often do when working with other students in an intensive, residential format, I invited my Taiwanese students over to dinner at my home in the Bay Area. I was first surprised at the emotional reactions to this invitation. My Taiwanese colleagues were very appreciative of my offer and began making elaborate plans for the visit to my home. It was a lovely evening. I was taught how to cook several exquisite meals and my wife and I shared a lovely and loving evening with these men and women. However, I soon found out that this invitation held much greater symbolic meaning than I had intended. It is rare that people in Taiwan invite others to dinner at their home. They are much more likely to invite others to dinner at a restaurant.
