ORSC is at the Heart of All Human Work; a Personal Account of ORSC

By Jen Parkin, ORSC UK Community member

As ORSC practitioners, we rarely limit our approach to just using ORSC tools. Instead, we take the opportunity to fully immerse ourselves in its philosophy and principles before taking it out into our own unique context.

We all know how exciting this can be as we, with trepidation, stretch and build these new muscles; hone new skills; sometimes mess up, but most importantly, learn heaps along the way.

This is what makes ORSC so powerful as it easily complements the work we are already doing, whatever that may be. It does this because relationships are the life blood of all human endeavour and without them, we achieve very little.

How ORSC builds on an Established Concept of ‘Systems’

Like so many others, I stumbled upon the ORSC world with an established sense of practice as a systemic change consultant. I was initially baffled by how much language my approach shared with ORSC, the main example of this being the term ‘system’. The system that I help my clients to reveal is what I like to call the structural system, or the system of work.

This encompasses organisational processes, protocols, ICT, performance targets etc. The revealing process helps to build consensus around the systemic issues and an energy for wanting to change.

ORSC helped me to appreciate, and work with, the relationship system. I have not discarded my understanding of ‘system’, I have simply broadened my understanding of how organisations and teams work. This along with the extraordinary personal development and deeper self-awareness I gained from the ORSC series was mind-blowing. My practice and ability to better serve my clients has leap frogged into a new level. I don’t use ORSC tools every day or in every circumstance, I still do the work I believe in, but it is now nourished by the essence of ORSC.