Relationship Matters

Worldwork Bonus: Supporting NGOs through ORSC

April 28, 2021 CRR Global Season 2 Episode 19
Relationship Matters
Worldwork Bonus: Supporting NGOs through ORSC
Show Notes Transcript

In this collection of bonus episodes, we’re looking at the concept of Worldwork, which embraces the idea that we are continuously impacting the world, whether we are conscious of it or not. Whilst Worldwork can involve big acts of altruism and community spirit, it always starts with self. Across the course of these 4 bonus episodes, you will be hearing from 4 World workers from across the globe, who have all used ORSC tools in very different ways tools to serve their wider communities.

In this episode, Katie Churchman is talking with Yuri Morikawa about how she has brought ORSC to the world in many different ways- personally and professionally, individually and collectively. 

Over the course of this episode Yuri takes us on a journey of discovery, expressing the many ways she has used ORSC in her life: firstly, by bringing ORSC to Japan and forming CRR Japan; she then discusses working directly with relationship expert John Gottman to bring new life into her marriage; then finally Yuri explains how she actively uses the ORSC tools to help NGOs work more effectively with survivors of human trafficking or as she calls them in this episode ‘survivor leaders.’

Yuri has been an active player in the professional coaching field since 2004. She has trained and coached more than 1000 leaders and coaches globally from various backgrounds, such as corporate executives, NGO leaders, business owners, independent professionals, and dream seekers of their own.

For more information about the Kamonohashi project and the Survivors Leadership Programme, please click here.

Relationship Matters - World Work Bonus: Supporting NGOs through ORSC

 

Key 

 

KC – Katie Churchman 

YM - Yuri Morikawa

 

[Intro music 00:07] 

 

KC – Hello and welcome back to the Relationship Matters podcast World Works special. In this collection of bonus episodes we’re looking at the concept of World Work which embraces the idea that we are continuously impacting the world whether we are conscious of it or not. Whilst World Work can involve big acts of altruism and community spirit, it always starts with the self. Across the course of these four bonus episodes, you’ll be hearing from four world workers from across the globe, who’ve all used ORSC tools in very different ways to serve their wider communities. In this episode I’m talking with professional coach and global sensation Yuri Morikawa about the many different ways World Work has evolved in her life. Personally and professionally, individually and collectively, locally and globally. Prior to her career in coaching, Yuri worked as a management consultant specialising in organisational and leadership development. After being a trainer for CTI for eight years she launched the organisational and relationships systems coaching program in Japan and founded CRR Japan in 2009. Currently she’s a global faculty member of CRR Global developing professional organisational coaches around the world. Over the course of this episode, Yuri takes us on a journey of discovery, expressing the many ways she’s used ORSC in her life. Firstly, by bringing ORS to Japan and forming CRR Japan. Then working directly with the Gottmans, John and Julie Gottman, to bring new life into her marriage. And then finally, Yuri explains how she’s actively using the ORSC tools to help NGO’s work more effectively with survivors of Human Trafficking in India. It’s my pleasure to bring you Yuri Morikawa talking about World Work in every sense of the phrase. Well Yuri, it’s an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today. Welcome to the Relationship Matters podcast. 

 

YM – Thank you Katie, I’m so happy to be here. 

 

KC - So, I’d love to kick this off by asking you what does World Work mean to you? 

 

YM – World Work is, for me it’s a relationship with the world and myself. And World Work has been growing and reveal that who I am and teach me that what I can be a contribution to the world and not only for myself, beyond myself. 

 

KC – That’s so interesting, because it does sounds like a big grand thing World Work, but for you it just sounds like a much more internal state of being?

 

YM - Absolutely, absolutely. Yes, it appeals like I have been given, it’s not like I’m grabbing it or having a vision, massive vision, changing the world and I can do this and do that. It’s a bit different for me how it’s showed up. 

 

KC – So do you feel then like World Work has been part of your ORSC journey throughout? 

 

YM – Oh my goodness, absolutely. Absolutely. It’s showed up in a very diverse way and I think it’s showed up because I am walking the journey of ORSC. 

 

KC – So, ORSC isn’t just the work you do, it’s the way you live you’d say?

 

YM – Wow. That’s a beautiful way of saying it. 

 

KC – I know, I need to write that down and put that on a T-shirt! 

 

YM – I love it! Yes! I quoted what you just said. I’m loving it so I’m saying yes. 

 

KC – So tell me a bit more about your background and CRR Japan, I’d love to hear a bit more about that. 

 

YM – Sure. I am, again, Japanese woman. And I started out my career as a researcher/management consultant and I was in the Think Tank for 13 years. And then I met coaching and that was early 2000s and I got fascinated. The world that, how deep listening really brings a passion to the deeper level and creates the relationship with ourselves. And so I let go of everything, people think I’m crazy, and I jump into the world of coaching. And I became a leader for CTI and I did that role for 8 years and I have known that there is a new coaching called relationship coaching that is emerging in California. So, I went and learned from Marita and Jim Patterson, that was my fundamental leaders. And, I flew to California and learned that for two years and something sparked in my head. 

 

KC – Wow. 

 

YM – Yeah, this work is something that I have learned, everything I have learned before, all the projects and, actually, my experience in my life, meant to bring myself to here. So that was how I felt when I met with ORSC. 

 

KC – So it was almost like you sort of, everything you were doing finally aliened in this world, would you say? 

 

YM – Exactly. Yes. That’s how I felt. So right after that I started speaking with my colleague Hide Enomoto and also Marita and Faith that we want to bring ORSC to Japan. And that was a process that me becoming CRR leaders, a member of CRR faculties, and step out with supervisors and that became my World Work. It was not me learning about ORSC but together with bringing ORSC to Japan and that involved, not only the word translation, but cultural translation from American one to the people in Japan. 

 

KC – Oh that’s interesting, so the work had to be taught differently do you feel? Or some of it had to be altered for the audience? 

 

YM – It’s the same beyond culture, however I think it’s not only for Japan, I think it’s everywhere in the world, but I think the work needs to be translated culturally and with the words and the spirit of the people here received well and can connect to this work as mine, on my land. 

 

KC – Oh so you’re properly meeting the system then, meeting Japan with their language, with their culture? 

 

YM – Yes. And it took a while, I think, I might be still working on it. It has been 11 years since I founded CRR Japan with my colleagues, I just want to name his name – Hide Enomoto- when we brought it that we spent so much time and energy that how bring ORSC and how this can be useful for Japanese people and many people have question mark now, however after 11 years now that is very well received and people see why it is important, why relationship matters and it meets with the Japanese context. 

 

KC – Do you think there’s differences around the tools or the lenses that people get from this work in Japan compared to somewhere like California? 

 

YM – Ah, yeah I think so. I think so. For example, I don’t wanna make a gross generalisation however, if I may, I can say that Japan is relatively collective society. People are aware of the system, people are aware of the wholeness and people are aware of what is your role and, you know, reading the emotional field all the time. So, Japanese people including myself and our participants, they’re super good at reading the emotional field. 

 

KC – That’s so interesting! That’s the bit that we suck at! British and American people find that bit the edgiest part of the whole program. 

 

YM – That’s right, that’s right! Yeah. However, for Japanese people, reading the emotional field, knowing what is happening and take action, take responsibility and what is your role and showing up in that context and take leadership for the system – I think that is the challenge for Japanese people. 

 

KC – So this is the ultimate in terms of World Work because you’re taking the work and you’re sharing it with a different part of the world and translating it in lots of different ways, in every sense of the word. 

 

YM – Yeah, and correctly supporting the Asian Pacific ORSC community to emerge, for example like Singapore and China, and that is my passion. I want to be the support for them and the local leaders, to find out how they can bring ORSC, this amazing work, to their cultural context and deliver it to the people there. 

 

KC – Such a good point Yuri because I think, yeah maybe we sometimes think we have some amazing work or this great thing to say but if you’re not meeting the system with their language, with the context of their culture, then it’s not going to really land in the way that you hope it will. 

 

YM – Yeah. 

 

KC – How have you found that, I don’t want to say translation process, but in the wider sense of the word, how have you found that with other parts of Asia. 

 

YM – Hmm. I’m still finding out. So, but however I feel that it will be very different from what I have experienced in Japan and what I have known from the other parts of the world. Like, Singapore is an amazing melting pot of people and so many people from all over the world, such a diverse culture is there as a kind of like basic context. And bringing people who have like Chinese background and people who have Australian and New Zealand background and a lot of Europeans from many parts of the world, and they voicing their  beliefs and getting alignment, that is not easy. However that is such an exciting environment for them to be very authentically creative. 

 

KC – Yeah, because it’s so different, the background there for setting up a course compared to what you were saying about in Japan, it’s just a whole different context and environment and culture you’re working with. 

 

YM – Yes, yes. I also, funny story that I was working with Faith, Faith and many other leaders supported us, such amazingly at the beginning when CRR Japan was founded. And they come and many of them got shocked that for the moment of silence. You know, for example, Faith asked the question so, how are you this morning? And for her it was gratitude and just saying good morning and everyone took it very deeply and said how am I this morning? Long silence. 

 

KC – So everyone went silent? Oh my gosh! So she’s used to everyone jumping in and talking over each other … [Laughs]  I think even I then was like nervous by the silence, it’s one of those things that we’re not really comfortable with but I guess when it’s culturally part of conversation, part of the dialogue. 

 

YM – Exactly, yeah, Japanese – it’s not all of them but culturally it’s reflective and taking, you know, inwards, and saying the thing that is so true to ourselves. And there is a sense of beauty for that kind of being. So, but silence, many times freaked out a lot of Western leaders. 

 

KC – I think that’s such a wise way of being because so many of us are thinking about what we’re going to say next as opposed to listening to Faith’s question in that example. And to take it in and to really pose with it for a moment, it does feel a lot more thoughtful. 

 

YM – Yes, yeah. I think so, that’s a strength of Japanese culture. And I am learning from Japanese culture about that because I’m rather extrovert and fast and, you know jumping in and a create from the moment type. So, yeah. 

 

KC – Me too, as you can tell, we’re very unscripted here. Just working from each other. I’m wondering, because you mentioned offline about the professional World Work project and the bigger sense of the word, taking this work to a bigger part of the world, and also the personal World Work project, I don’t know if you want to share but I just thought that was such a lovely example of what this can mean. 

 

YM – Yeah, yeah. Well, Katie, the relationship with my husband might have been the biggest teacher for me. 

 

KC – Wow. 

 

YM – And most impactful relationship that I ever had and will have in my life. So, my husband and I are very, very different people. He is a Clinical Engineer and he’s a researcher in a search and development field. And so I’ve got fascinated by the work of coaching and especially organisational relationship coaching, and when I was creating CRR Japan I devoted 80% or 90% of my time and energy for this, right? And when I realised my husband and my relationship were become parallel relationship, he was doing my thing and I was doing my thing and we realised that there’s such a big distance between him and I. And one time he told me that, what is the meaning of us living together? Who am I for you? And it was a big shock for me, I was like, I took it for granted. 

 

KC – Must be hard. 

 

YM – Yeah. I took, I thought my marriage is forever which I’m saying something different, so the biggest shock is oh my goodness, I’m not walking the talk. So we started facing each other and we hired a systems coach and we also went to Washington, Seattle, for to seek support from Dr John Gottman and both of us went to the workshop of him and we discussed and aligned together to invite him and his wife Julie, John and Julie, to come to Japan and give us teaching. So that became our common project and it really helped for us to learn about each other as working together and there were many moments that he gets curious about me and some of the moments that I got confused and disappointed and sad about how the relationship is not working as I dreamed. But it was a starting point of, we, that became our mutual common interest – that how different people can live in the same, under the same roof, and how we can live together. And it’s still not easy and still not the solution but, yeah. 

 

KC – So inspiring and, I’m sure, very encouraging for a lot of people to hear that, you know, you can be at a certain point in your relationship or your marriage and you can change the way that that pattern, that routine plays out. I wanna ask more about what was it like working with John and Julie? I know so much about them and I’m fascinated by their work. 

 

YM – I just loved how they were authentic and transparent and really deeply taking into themselves. So, they got emotional as they much have been teaching 1000s of times and so many people, however every time they’d speak they’d really connect to themselves and speak from the heart. So that was very, very inspiring. And also, what I loved was how they hold the meta skill of humour and laughter. 

 

KC – We definitely need more of that in the world. 

 

YM – Don’t you think! I’m not good at that when I get serious and when things get, you know, heated up and in the hot spot. I get serious and, you know, focused. But they kept open and every time I, we hear from them, especially the toughest moment or more painful moment they show their sense of humour. They really… meta view of how they are and they speak about it and it’s funny! So, I’m aligning that, you know, sense of humour really! It lights up our soul and also gives us power to turn toward each other in challenging moments. 

 

KC – What does that mean to you, turn toward in challenging moments? 

 

YM – You’ll make me cry. That was the key phrase I held when things were the most difficult with my husband. Yeah, I asked for advice and support from my great colleagues and teachers because we are all professionals and there was one phrase that Faith shared with me, she said that you may face the moment that nothing works and you feel powerless and you feel that there’s no hope for the relationship. You don’t. And just keep turning towards each other. Don’t put your back from your husband. You don’t have to do anything but keep turning toward, turning toward. And you may meet with the opportunity to come together. And turning toward is the only thing that I held during the toughest moment in my relationship. 

 

KC – So beautiful. It sounds so simple but I’m sure that was so challenging for you at certain points. 

 

YM – Yes, because I wanted to protect my ego, I wanted to hold my position but turning toward was the key for me to keep the relationship open and, yeah, and I’m glad that we’ve somehow found a way to come together. 

 

KC – Love that, I guess that turning toward, you can find alignment then, even if you don’t agree on lots of things, you can align on that deeper level that we talked too. 

 

YM – Yeah, yeah. 

 

KC – I think I love that phrase as well, right now, because it feels like the world is in so much conflict, it seems like there’s so much miscommunication to be going on and I wonder what that statement would look like in a wider cultural context in terms of relationships. 

 

YM – Thank you for that rephrasing Katie, I think that meet with the current situation, to any extent of the relationship I think turning toward is the key. As long as we have that resilience of staying and turning toward at that uncomfortable moment, yeah we probably have a moment that the door opens. 

 

KC – Yeah but I guess if we’re not turning towards we don’t see it and we miss it, we miss those moments of connection. And we feel alone in our pain where, as quite often we’re feeling the same thing just on different sides of the street or the argument. 

 

YM – That’s right, that is so true. And it’s not easy turning towards when you’re so vulnerable and you get hit and you get blood. But still, seeking for that possibility in that relationship. 

 

KC – I really want to thank you for how vulnerable you’re being on this podcast, because I think there is this sense that when you do this work and you’re a relationship systems coach, you need to know everything about relationships but all I’ve found is that it makes me realise how little I know, actually, and I ask more and more questions. 

 

YM – Me too, me too you know! Isn’t it great. I think what’s great about this work is that we never stop learning from it, we never stop finding out something new about ourselves and about the world and about human beings so this is fascinating. 

 

KC – I really want to get onto Part 3, if we call it that, of your World Work journey. 

 

YM – So my World Work, again, has been involved and it was calling from the world and when I turned toward it, then it’s there. Yeah. 

 

KC – So would you say this project called you then? It found you, this project? 

 

YM – I think so. I think so, yeah. Because it started out, well, I have done many projects working with global NJOs and brining ORSC in a social context and there’s several projects that continued and I work in several years so far, and one of the projects is the collaboration with NJO called Kamonohashi project, and this NJO is supporting sexually trafficked women in India. And they call them survivor leaders. And the project, this Kamonohashi project, NJO is giving the funding and also supporting that how the, several NJOs, global NJOS working with Lucky Four, the survivor leaders, and aligning them, support them to align them, creating visions. And, myself was called in to first work with this local NJOs who have, yeah, who have different stakes. So Kamonohashi project is a funding for the several local NJOs who is supporting this human trafficked survivors. And they are all good will however they are not aligned at all. And some NJOs is supporting the trafficked woman and supporting how they recover physically, emotionally and bringing them back to their home, and some NJOs are to bring the survivors to create their own life, become independent and becoming educated and becoming independent and create their own life so that they can be independent from that eco system that they belongs. And there are several NJOs that have different stakes in order to support them so, aligning them was the big challenge for this funding NJOs Kamonohashi that I was working with. 

 

KC – Wow, what a challenge because I guess they’re all ultimately trying to help the same cause, the same people, but in different ways they’re actually clashing. 

 

YM – Yes. So the leaders of Kamonohashi came to ORSC program and it really aligned with how they work, this project. So I was invited, along the line I was invited, along the line I was invited to work with several aligning of NJO leaders and so we all came together and one time in Mumbi and there was, the first emotional field was very tough. You know, people looking at each other and, you know, greeting to each other but emotional field was very tense and we started out from there. However, we spent the whole day together and we did, what did we do, we did land work and we also did myth change, talking about how this project in India has been evolved, how it started and who contributed and how each of the leaders joined this huge, you know, social project and where they are now. And as they keep doing the story telling they realised that how each of the organisation and how each of the leaders are big contributor for this whole, huge social project. And they’re actually teaming together. Even the organisational entities, they’re different. So it was so beautiful to watch them and to feel them and to be the witness that how they start communicating with each other in a different way and how they vulnerably share why it is meaningful for them to be part of this social project. So, beyond that organisational differences they connect as World Workers, right. 

 

KC – It’s, I’m sort of stunned into silence, it’s like the ultimate example of alignment because they’re all trying to do good works and to help these survivors of human trafficking but coming about it from different ways, creating conflict on the surface but I’m sure that deeper work made them see really they’re connected where the value sets really matter. 

 

YM – Yes, and that was the beginning of the project and then I also worked with leaders in Kamonohashi in India, how they can be aligned and people comes and goes and organisation always facing the challenge that how they aligned, they all have a very different and strong opinion. So, that team building was something that I did and I also, I hosted one of the ceremony. When two of the survivor leaders passed away they were very young and the way that they left this world was sad. So, all the people who related to, supported her, supported them, a traumatic experience. And they didn’t have the official mourning ceremony as they’re in a different religious background and it’s not necessarily these NJO people welcome in the local village that the survivor leaders were from. So, I hosted the mourning ceremony and so people came and they did the story telling about them, how they lived, how they’d survived, how courageous they were, how beautiful they were. And they could say goodbye, it was non-religious but very purely connecting heart to heart and let go of the beautiful spirits, to leave from them. 

 

KC – Must have been very beautiful, challenging, moving, all of the things. 

 

YM – Yeah. And it was deeply humbling, you know. I did not do anything, I basically go there and hosted the space so I don’t think I could do it without what I learnt from ORSC. 

 

KC – Well you hosted the space in which their system could really see them and I’m sure in much of their life maybe they weren’t seen in that way and so what a beautiful parting gift. 

 

YM – Yeah, thank you. 

 

KC – I really love the way, it’s not been lost on me, that you’ve, and I’ve actually named, labelled wrongly off the back of that. Survivor leaders, you say? Can you talk more to that because it’s a beautiful term, it really takes it away from victim of human trafficking as many of us might say. 

 

YM – Yes. Yeah so there were survivor leaders, it’s not what I connected, it’s the term that this organisation, Kamonohashi, and the allied NJOs, they put that phrase for them. And I’ve also been very much inspired by the way that they call them and it was the belief and strong intention of not seeing them or not them seeing themselves as a victim of what happened. And starting from the victimhood doesn’t, it only creates a deviation between victim and person. So it is more of, they’re human beings that have had a very challenging experience and they survived from that experience and from that there are things that they can create for themselves and because they are. 

 

KC – Not because of what they lived through or what they experienced? 

 

YM – Yes, yes. So it’s more of the current and future focused and it is the statement for themselves in power for each other and for themselves. 

 

KC – I really love that and it’s made me think about the labels I use in coaching because yeah it’s not a forward focused label, victim of human trafficking. And what must it be like to be seen in that label, seen in that way. Is it harder then to let go of that baggage or to move away from it and create something different. I think it’s such an intentional use of language that I’m sure can be very impactful. Did you notice a difference, like the shift in the women when they were given that different title. 

 

YM – Yes, absolutely, yes. And I must say it is not easy for them to hold that title. 

 

KC – Mm, I’m sure. 

 

YM – Yeah, in many ways right because for example they are still living in the same eco system that brought them in to that challenging situation. Right, so you know, people in the village still treat them as victims. Or, so there’s social ranks and being a victim could naturally bring them into the challenging situation in that way. So, it is like empowerment for themselves that who I am and what I can be. Now and for the future. So yes, that is a very empowering title. 

 

KC – It’s just such an important distinction to make, I think. Just before this call I think I mentioned that previous title,  victims of human trafficking and you said I work with women and suddenly it just feels more human, more real. They’re a woman, they’re a person just like me and you and there’s not this big divide between what they’ve experienced and what I’ve experienced and I think, yeah, those really difficult titles can hold people back but also the relationships between peoples. It’s like I don’t know how to work with a human trafficking, maybe I don’t but maybe I know how to work with human beings and maybe that’s ok. 

 

YM – Yeah, and you know what Katie? They are so beautiful and so strong and so colourful. 

 

KC – Colourful, what a wonderful word. 

 

YM – I’ve never seen such a colourful people, yeah. Something that I have been taught - how we can live colourfully from them, by them. 

 

KC – So what do you mean by colour? I just want to, is there an example of what that colour looks like? 

 

YM – Yeah, so, let’s see. First of all, Indian ladies are colourful, right? They are really into making themselves beautiful and strong and elegant and feminine and, of course, not all of them are like that. But there’s a pride of being a woman. You know, they are unapologetically feminine and strong and powerful. And I had an assumption. I had a gross assumption of just like that, you know, they have horrendous backgrounds. So something about I have to be careful about, I need to be cautious about the usage of word, how can I be the support, you know, who doesn’t have the same experience. That was the mindset that I had before but when I first met that was the first huge bus, to bring us all to the same place for the workshop and they, you know, one by one they jumped on to the bus and was saying hi to me and I think it was only 3 or 5 minutes later the bus started bouncing. And I was like what and they put the music hugely and they started dancing! 

 

KC – Oh my gosh, that’s brilliant. 

 

YM – Yes, they were such enjoy of you know, being together, coming together from each of their village and, you know because they’re friends of each other, they empower each other, they shed tears together, you know. So they are actually a team of survivor leaders, the way they dress was each of them a different colour and they have strong imitation, what colour that they wear… today. 

 

KC – I love that story. You wouldn’t expect a party bus, you almost, you say that term and it’s like you expect almost the air to be sucked out of the room but it sounds like there was so much life there! 

 

YM – Mmm, they blew me away! With the power and the joy of living and, you know, joy of being together bouncing! And they welcome me into the bus so it was first time in my life that I’m jumping up and down on the bus on terrible traffic of the city of Calcutta, you know, very noisy action all around and, you know, who cares? We are having a good time on the bus… that’s who they are. 

 

KC – That’s wonderful. What a wonderful sort of experience, I’m sure such a learning and takeaway for you. 

 

YM – Yeah, they’re a teacher. They’re teachers for me. 

 

KC – This has been such a wonderful journey Yuri, this conversation and I just wanna ask you one final question. What’s been your biggest take away from all that you’ve learnt? 

 

YM – So many way of saying it and I’m still not being able to find the take away because it’s such a profound question. Relationship is the greatest teacher.

 

KC – I love that. And, could you say that in Japanese for us as well? 

 

YM – I can say that. 関係性は最高の先生 [Kankeisei ha saiko no sensei]

 

KC – Beautiful. Thank you so much Yuri, my heart is full, this was such a joyful conversation, thank you. 

 

YM – Thank you so much Katie, I enjoyed every moment with you. 

 

KC – Likewise, take care. 

 

YM – Thank you, you too. 

 

KC – A huge thanks to Yuri Morikawa for sharing some of the different ways ORSC has shown up in her life, professionally and personally. To find out more about the survivor leadership program Yuri mentioned do check out kamonohashi-project.net. CRR Global holds all of its students as change agents and trains them to be conscious of what impact they want to make in the world. We believe that everybody’s impact, whether conscious or unconscious, sends ripples out into the world. It’s up to all of us as World Workers to keep our communities safe and healthy. The World Work project is a key element of the ORSC certification journey. For more information about World Work and certification, do check out crrglobal.com and remember, we’re always in relationship. From the living room to the board room, we believe relationship matters. 

 

[Outro music 40:43 – end]