Note that Luft’s highly interdependent model suggests that both Sheila and Kevin’s Quads One and Three will be smaller as a result of a large Quad Two, and that Quad Four will be larger. The consequence, according to Luft, of retaining a large amount of unshared information about another person (large Quad Two) is not only that our public self (Quad One) is smaller—the obvious implication—but also that we will have a smaller Quad Three (less unshared information about ourselves) and a large Quad Four (more unknown information about ourselves).
In other words, we will go more “unconscious” or become less self-insightful when we are unwilling to give other people feedback regarding our observations, assumptions, beliefs and feelings about them (Quad Two). This is a very powerful statement! It serves as the foundation for many human relations programs (including the Ojai and NTL programs with which Joe Luft is closely associated) and for the American School (to which I will turn when considering the second quadrant in the New Johari Window). I will frequently return to this powerful dynamic in the original Johari Window, and consider ways this dynamic does and does not hold true.
