Understanding 7 Cups Culture (LDP Discussion #5)
Please note: In order to successfully complete Course 1, you must respond to this post. Your comment/response should answer the questions/shows that you completed the given activity. Read the post carefully and follow the instructions given. Save your responses to a document that you can later refer to. You will need to copy/paste your response in the course evaluation form at the end of each course to show that you have done the work and to refresh your memory.
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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.
After posting, please...
1. Take the course exam here to complete course 1.
2. Take the leadership oath here
3. Fill out the End of Trial form to complete your trial!
4. Proceed to Course 2!
This post is brought to you by the Leadership Development Program Team, find out more information about the program here.
@GlenM
1. Strength-Based : I cannot agree with it more, it is important to do things which we are good at as it is more effective than doing things which we are not good at.
2. Try Hard : Practise makes you better. Trying hard is a tiring activity but at the end of the day you feel good as you have been productive all day.
3. We accept failure : No one is perfect and everybody makes mistake. The point is to accept the failure and try not to repeat the mistake.
@Hope2103 i like the third one, it's strangely comfortaing isn't it? that it's okay to fail because it means we'll learn :D
It is indeed oreo!😊💙
@GlenM and again, good afternoon
1. trust: it's important to trust one another so that we can grow and support 7 cups' mission. this is special to me because i've always believed in trust making any bond stronger.
2. high expectations and high warmth is important to grow a community. this is important to me because i'm aware that there is no way to grow towards a goal if we're not evaluating how we're doing and setting expectations.
3. trying hard is important because overcoming challenges is what teaches you things
Trust does make any bond stronger☺️💙
Take Care Of Yourself: I do a lot of activities in work and at home. I need respect myself for how hard i've been working by sleeping well, eating well, and living the best I possibly can.
Not Everyone Will Be A Good Fit: Although I can try my hardest in this program, it may not be for me. But that's okay! there are plently of other programs wich i can benifit and give back to. It's important that I relfect and learn from the expirence.
The top 3 things I learned from the guide are:
We have High Expectations & High Warmth. This is very important because it means we are constantly growing and improving while still being kind and supportive.
Being mean to others is being mean to yourself and it's draining to your mental state. It was interesting to have this pointed out to me because I've been feeling this with the state of the world lately. The negativity is wearing and I've had to take myself away from it to start feeling better
We are all here for each other and therefore in this together. There are people available to support everyone whether it's a member issue or a listener issue or a home issue. I think that's pretty great.
Three most important things I learned from the guide and why they are important to me:
1. High Expectations & High Warmth: I feel that having high expectations is always crucial for the growth and good functioning of a community. The moment people start getting complacent, they fail to adapt to various changes that we inevitably face. High warmth is important to me because feeling cared for makes a good difference and provides a comfortable space to coexist.
2. We Expect Failure: I also believe that failure is an inevitable part to grow and if it is expected, we can be prepared and be in good capacity to move past it by learning from it.
3. Caring for People with Fewer Financial Resources: Not having enough financial resources should not be a barrier to seeking emotional support. I absolutely love that 7 Cups bridges that gap and continues to provide services to people regardless of their financial status.
1. High Expectations & High Warmth: I feel that having high expectations is always crucial for the growth and good functioning of a community. The moment people start getting complacent, they fail to adapt to various changes that we inevitably face. High warmth is important to me because feeling cared for makes a good difference and provides a comfortable space to coexist.
2. We Expect Failure: I also believe that failure is an inevitable part to grow and if it is expected, we can be prepared and be in good capacity to move past it by learning from it.
3. Caring for People with Fewer Financial Resources: Not having enough financial resources should not be a barrier to seeking emotional support. I absolutely love that 7 Cups bridges that gap and continues to provide services to people regardless of their financial status.
@GlenM
The Guide was truly amazing as it is so well and practically explained. Among all the three things which I found to be most important in the guide are as follows:-
- Trust: In any kind of human interaction, trust plays a vital role. It improves the quality or bond, service and relations in many aspects. Hence, we must ensure that we maintain the trust that others have on us on whatever we are doing.
- Self believe: We must believe that we are capable of more than what we think we are. This really helps us in the personal growth and maintaining the quality of our life .
- Thirdly, we must be selective towards the nature of the work that we oath to do. We must oath the work in which we are good, and which is interesting to us and the one we strive to solve the problems for. This can evidently improve the quality of our work.
@GlenM
- One of the things I learned was that all of the work that I do here, matters and that it saves people's lives.
- Another thing that I learned is that accountability is very important. If there is lack of accountability things could mess up and it makes it quite harder to accomplish our goals.
- And I have also learned that self-care is very important and I honestly need to work on that. often times I forget to take care of myself which results in my poor performance at school/work or even volunteering here at 7cups and an upset mood due to a burn-out.
@SkyLindenHope
Fantastic!
@GlenM
1. I align with 7cups culture more than I thought I did. That is important so I can become more part of the community.
2. I learned that 7cups care about saving lives. I always assumed they didn't care about that, so it is important to know that they do care about people who are extremely vulnerable.
3. I learned that 7cups is very intentional about the direction they are developing the community. That is important because it means things are always done with a purpose and I should learn what the intention is instead of assuming.
@GlenM
Three most important things I learned from the guide are:
1. Our work here matters, by simply showing people someone cares about them we save lives.
2.Failure is expected, it is just a way of learning things, we fail only if we fall and don't get up, but if we get up and start over, we didn't fail, we learned a lesson.
3. Self efficacy or mastery is important. We need to learn to trust ourselvs more and more everyday and focus on growing more confident.
@AmazingDog96
Good job! I loved reading your respnonse.
