Why Relationship Systems?

The Center for Right Relationship (CRR — my alma mater) lists some things that they’ve tested, explored, and come to believe in:

• Human relationships are inherently resourceful and wired for growth. If we reveal the system to itself, it is naturally self correcting.
• All relationship systems have certain characteristics in common, whether they are our personal inner voices, a pair, groups, teams, communities, organizations or nations. Training in the systems approach provides baseline cross-competencies in many arenas of Relationship Systems Work™.
• Relationships have a life cycle, whether an intimate relationship or a team. The life cycle of relationship can be as long as a lifetime or as short as a day. The ending of a marriage, team or organization is a natural part of the system cycle. Relationship Systems Coaching can assist in the birth, creative expression and constructive completion of relationship systems.
• Conflict is useful. It is the midwife to constructive change. It is the means by which relationships change. Relationship Systems Coaching demands moving from “Who is doing what to whom?” to “What is trying to happen?”
• Awareness is a critical but not sufficient condition for growth. Awareness must be paired with behavioral change to be effective.
• Theory is useful but must be paired with research and outcome studies to determine efficacy. Good theoretical models are only as effective as our ability to “operationalize” them.
• Everyone is right, but only partially! Only by listening to all the voices in the system can reality be accurately represented, and every voice is a voice of the system.
• We are at a critical juncture in human development. Individual interventions are important but no longer enough. To address such pressing issues as terrorism, global climate change, disease and poverty, we must harness the power of communities and organizations—essentially human systems built on relationships—to leverage change. Relationship Systems Work™ assists communities and organizations to “wake up” to both their creative power and their responsibility to make a difference.
• Every graduate of our program is a world worker. It does not matter whether graduates do their work on the personal, local or global level. The inherent nature of our interdependence means all change ripples out, touching everything. Our job is to provide our graduates with world-class tools and support to do their critical job.

Relationship Systems Work™ is a registered trademark of the Center for Right Relationship.