The New Johari Window #1: Introduction to the Interpersonal Dance

The New Johari Window #1: Introduction to the Interpersonal Dance

Luft and Ingram presented their model the following morning and then went their own separate ways without much fanfare. One year later, Luft was attending another human relations conference and was approached by a conference participant who wanted Joe to make a presentation on the “Joe-Harry Window”. Luft had no idea what this person was talking about and remained bewildered until the participant began describing the four-cell model that Joe had presented a year earlier with Ingram. Apparently, several of the Ojai participants apparently found the four-cell model to be insightful and began using this model in their own training. An informal authorship was assigned to the model (soon to be shortened to “Johari”). Since it had four cells and looked like a window, the model became known as the “Johari Window.”

Joe Luft went on to prepare a summary description of the Johari Window in a publication prepared by UCLA and wrote the first of several books on the Johari Window—a book with an unpretentious name (On Human Interaction). He began his book (Luft, 1969, p. 6/footnote) by noting that:

. . . it is fairly well known now that Johari does not refer to the southern end of the Malay Peninsula. That’s Johore. Johari is pronounced as if it were Joe and Harry, which is where the term comes from. However, Harry Ingram of the University of California, Los Angeles, should not be held responsible for releasing this neologism. Dr. Ingram and I developed the model during a summer laboratory session in 1955, and the model was published in the Proceedings of the Western Training Laboratory in Group Development for that year by the UCLA Extension Office.

Joe Luft wrote about the Johari Window in several additional books. The model, however, continues to be used in its original manner—as a maverick or orphan model without any author and often without any consistent or coherent underlying conceptual base. The present set of essays has been written in an effort to establish and anchor the authorship of the original book—Joe Luft and Harrington Ingram—and to establish (and hopefully enrich) the conceptual base of the Johari Window.

Attachments

Share this:

About the Author

Avatar photo

William BergquistWilliam Bergquist, Ph.D. An international coach and consultant in the fields of psychology, management and public administration, author of more than 50 books, and president of a psychology institute. Dr. Bergquist consults on and writes about personal, group, organizational and societal transitions and transformations. His published work ranges from the personal transitions of men and women in their 50s and the struggles of men and women in recovering from strokes to the experiences of freedom among the men and women of Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In recent years, Bergquist has focused on the processes of organizational coaching. He is coauthor with Agnes Mura of coachbook, co-founder of the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations and co-founder of the International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations.

View all posts by William Bergquist

Leave a Reply