Understanding 7 Cups Culture (LDP Discussion #5)
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Hello Leadership Crew!
We are wrapping up the first course today with our last discussion on culture. Look for more instructions in this post to take the final evaluation for the course to your graduation. Once you have this course complete, you will be 20% done the Leadership Development Program. Good work!
Let's start by looking at the wikipedia definition of culture:
--Culture (/ÃkÃltÃÃr/) is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.[1]
We take culture seriously on 7 Cups because it is the heart of how we operate. A wise person once said: You teach what you know, but you reproduce who you are. We can have all of the best training content we want, but if our culture is not strong, then we will not be successful in growing a thriving, compassionate, community that will make a global impact.
Every organization has a culture whether by design or by default. When culture (including values and mission are not called out or made explicit, the organization defaults to an implicit or unstated culture. The unnamed culture is not always great for the end users or the community. An example of a common and implicit cultural rule or norm is that the person that makes the most money or the organization is the most important. People that work in this organization then, naturally, because it is the culture, start organizing themselves around ways to make more and more money. The ones at the top of the hierarchy are the ones that make the most money. 7 Cups cares less about money and more about compassion. We call out compassion and celebrate compassionate people because that is central to the work we do.
Please read our guide here to deeply understand our culture. We have made it explicit because we believe it is important to help us all be accountable to what we stand for and believe in. As leaders on 7 Cups, you will be models that emulate our culture and values.
One theme you'll notice in our guide is that it is very proactive, which is the opposite of reactive. We act first, we design first, we implement first in order to make an impact. Companies that react allow events to shape them; we instead try to focus on where we can have influence and shape events before they shape our community.
Part of being proactive is critical because building culture online is more challenging than building a culture offline. Offline interpersonal and group relationships are easier in a number of ways. People are generally much better behaved when they are right in front of you and it is easier for people to sync up and work towards a common goal. Online cultures have less of these natural strengths so you have to be extra proactive to build a strong culture. Look at most communities on the Internet. Unfortunately, they tend to devolve and become less than safe places with a lot of hate, sexual, and harmful behaviors. Our training system, the badges, word filters, moderators, etc. (dozens of behaviors we do) are all designed to proactively build and reinforce our culture so that we do not experience this same kind of entropy. Internet culture can be like an escalator going down. You have to be very proactive and take 2 or 3 steps up at a time to maintain and strengthen gains. As a leader on 7 Cups, you will be part of that group that gets behind us and enables us to continue making forward momentum.
That provides the broader background context to why we care so much about our culture and values at 7 Cups. They are core to our work.
To help make it more real, in this post, please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
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-Caring for People with Fewer Financial Resources. I find this one a really important one, many people out there are not able to afford therapy or treatments. And 7 cups has amazing listeners for free, which is why 7 cups has helped millions of people worldwide.
-We Expect Failure. We are human beings, imperfectly perfect, we are meant to fail, meant to make mistakes, and that is okay. We can grow from our mistakes and learn from them. If we dont fail, we wont be able to know whats wrong and whats right. Failing is part of the learning process.
-Take Care of Yourself. Self care is essential. Take care of yourself first so you can take care of others.
For me the most amazing 3 points were:
1) Trust: when we can't trust someone, we cant feel good around them thus leading to failure in relation be it with families ,friends, partner,or be it our teammates and the relationship between listeners and members. In this world where trust is broke at an higher rate than heart beats, a place like this reinforce our trust on humanity amd trust it self.
2) Our work matters: nowadays people dont even get time to take care of themselves properly and we as a team are trying to care for others. This single thing is more than enough for me to spend my entire life serving people here. We do save lifes,we make people feel better amd relaxed, we make they feel heard and validate their feelings, for us someone smiles a bit brighter and someone sleeps a bit better. Hats off to each and every person who are directly or indirectly connected to this amazing platform.
3) Facing the problem: the line 'problem is the path' really touched me. Its so true. Your problems are the opportunity in life. If we keep avoiding them then we are avoiding life. We should face it,fail thousands of time and get yup for thousands more times and then we unlock our next level aka succeed 😁
One of the three most important things to me from the guide was that the work we do matters. It was able to remind me that the effort we put in is not to be overlooked and that there is an impact, whether it be small or big. Another one was equality. Treating others and everyone equally and respecting everyone allows for a stronger community where we can cooperate with one another and support each other. The third important factor to me was accountability. With the large scale of the platform, it is really important to take responsibility in the actions that we take, otherwise the purpose fo the site is muddled in a way.
3 most important things I learned from 7cups' guide and why they are important to me:
(1) Trust is truly important. - Trust is something that others (and myself) give so that I should complete any tasks that were given. For me, trust means responsibility to do what I commit to do in a timely manner. And it also means a safe and supportive zone. As long as I'm here, 7 cups has been working very hard to maintain safety and supportive atmosphere for everyone, and so should I.
(2) Take care of myself. - Often times, this can be forgotten (by me). I could get too absorbed on many things that I had been doing and abandonding healthy habits such as having enough sleep, healthy eating, excersing reguraly, etc. I realized that when I 'neglected' those healthy habits, I didn't do well on other things either. Managing time well and setting boundaries is necessary in order giving me opportunities to refueling my gas tank.
(3) Failures are expected. - Failing means we are trying. That's what I believe. And yes, I also agree that failures which were caused by distraction or not even trying isn't really acceptable. It may happen once, but if it's done repeatedly with the same reason, that would be unacepptable. If I were the employer, I would feel that my trust was being used - not appreciated.
@GlenM
First and foremost , appreciating the great effort u have taken in bringing out this new program.
1. Trust- as always.the most important factor in any field or area would be trust. Unless and until there is a mutual trust among the member and listener always there will be a gap.
2. Accountability- we are accountable for our act. Therefore, it's always to be at our best when we are doing something. So that tomorrow we don't blame ourselves.
3. Equality- most important part .as 7 cups is a multi linguistic, multi traditional cultural venture. We need to make sure everyone has equal rights.and that's being preserved.
Please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
-Caring for People with Fewer Financial Resources
I don't think this is new information to me, but instead probably one of the most important things about 7Cups and the reason I found it in the first place, and probably how many people found it. Mental health care is expensive and just not accessible to a lot of people, but this is free. This is an opportunity to reach out, for people who might not have any other options. To learn more, find resources, find community, be supported. Of course there is the optional paid things, but even without those it can be a great support system. I wish more people took it seriously for what this site could really be.
-High expectations and high warmth
I've worked somewhere that had high expectations but very low warmth, and it was awful. All production, no validation or congratulations, only "okay, do that again, forever, actually do more". Terrible and makes you not want to try. All I was was my production numbers. There are "numbers" here too, but it's not all that you are. You can be recognized for the quality of what you do even with low "numbers". You could literally only have 1 member you talk to, and that still matters. The expectation is in the quality of your work, and you can be celebrated for that. I've gotten so much warmth from my teammates on here, so much appreciation, it really feels good :)
-Skin in the Game
I've seen listeners/interns complain that they put in all this time or effort and don't get much in return…and I think the time you put in IS what you get in return. You get to know you've willingly given your time to something that's important to you, that you're in this fight too. If that doesn't feel very fulfilling to you…maybe you don't really care about it as much as you thought you did. This is the whole point of volunteering, to not receive anything in return. And yet, I think you do get a lot from volunteering here! You get growth opportunities, access to resources, when you're on a team you get supportive teammates. Sure, I think sometimes it can feel like a lot of work, that you're doing for free, but I've always felt like I can say no when I feel like my duties on here exceed my capabilities. If this was just some hands-off "role", then it wouldn't really mean as much to you or to the cause you're trying to support
@GlenM
The 3 things I learnt from this guide is :
1) In the 3 concentric circles there is a common spot which resembles balance. This is very helpful as it can be applied in all areas of life.
2) Failure is accepted with open arms. There is no need to fear or worry if things arent going smoothly. There is always room for starting again and keep moving forward.
3) Behaviours draining our tanks like being in denial or avoiding problems stop us from progressing. This itself forms into its own mentality and blinds us from seeing the bigger picture. By now understanding this, problems can easily be tackled.
These 3 stood out to me:
Both high expectations and high warmth are required for us to be successful. Work environments with high expectations and minimal warmth tend to result in companies that are very driven, rule oriented and risk averse. The people do not tend to grow as much personally or professionally. On the other hand, workplaces that are high in warmth, but have minimal expectations, tend to struggle. Everyone is happy and feels loved, but not a lot of effective or focused work gets done (Baumrind, 1966).
Failure is nothing to be scared of and it is nothing to worry about as long as you are focused and trying. Failing because you are distracted or because you are simply not trying is a problem. We need people focused and engaged in order to make progress. However, even with focus and engagement, you are still going to fail A LOT. And that is perfectly okay. Edison famously said that he didn’t fail 1000 times, he just learned 1000 ways of not solving the problem. Much of what you do in a startup is not going to work. You are going to try 12 things and none of them will work, but then the 13th thing will work. The key is to stay focused and keep trying.
Seriously. We mean this. Sleep good, exercise, eat well, stay hydrated, surround yourself with loving people, take breaks, ask for help and face your personal problems. 7 Cups has programs for all of the above. We don’t differentiate between your personal self and work self. You are the same person. In order to perform well at work, you need to also take good care of yourself when you are not at work. Do not be in denial about this. You and your health matter to us. We don’t think short-term when we think about 7 Cups and we don’t think short term about you and your well-being.
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@GlenM
Caring- We will always serve those with fewer resources. It is core to who we are, and it keeps us on the right path. In order to thrive at 7 Cups, you need to 100% align with this way of thinking.
~This touched me, because in many countries, mental health is expensive, and hard to get. 7 Cups offers a lot of information, support, and different ways to get support and help needed. I was excited to see this was a big passion here.
Friendliness and Conscientiousness-As discussed above, we deeply value warmth and friendliness as it dramatically increases trust, which is our superpower. Similarly, we also value conscientiousness because it too increases trust.
~This stood out to because it perfectly described the environment here. The warmth and friendliness is also demonstrated by all the leaders here, which most everyone else catches on to the warmth and friendliness here.
High Expectations & High Warmth-we understand that we all collectively responsible for the success of our mission. We do not try to avoid problems or explain them away. We face them directly and we work to overcome them.
We are also a very warm, caring and accepting group of people. We understand that people need to feel secure in order to take risks and grow. We strive to be one of the most positive, supportive and encouraging organizations on the planet.
7 Cups is high expectations AND high warmth. We expect a lot from you. You might feel like we think you are more capable than other people have suggested or maybe even more capable than how you see yourself. That is okay. Every person on the team has outperformed and done better than they expected. This is largely because warmth, patience, and trust help people make much more progress than they have in other environments. We have high expectations, but we will provide plenty of encouragement and guidance to help you get there.
~This stood out probably the most because I have seen this demonstrated in the chat room. Mods and others encourage others to host, providing support and believing in them. I know I did not believe it was ever possible for me to completely host a full hour by myself, but the mods were always encouraging and reassuring that I could and they were there to support me all the way. I have been given a lot of encouragement to do try things and help with projects here when I did not believe in by ability to do it. Now look I am taking the leadership course.
@GlenM
The main things I learnt were:
1. Just how much my work matters, here and in the world outside that has been impacted by my work here
2. How high expectations AND high warmth both interlink and work together to build trust and make 7 Cups a better place.
3. That failure is key and to be expected, just as long as it is looked at positively and as a way forward