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.
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!
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@GlenM
please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
1)Solving Problems that Matter- problem solving skill is directly related to career path.
2)Self-Efficacy or Mastery- self confident and trust myself more in solving problems will give me new knowledge and skills to figure out the next problem.
3) trust- trusting each other help us to grow personally.
1.7 Cups reaches and supports over a million people each month.
2. Pain + Reflection = Progress.
3.Self-care necessity
Hello there!
To me it is definitely:
1) Trust-to me it’s the soil and the ground of and relationships, communication and meaning connection.
2)Kindness-I live with kindness, I live by kindness and I die for kindness. It is something truly human and precious.
3)It matters-what I do, who i am and everything in between matters, because that is what I remind myself when things get rough.
Lot of love
🌸Hana🌸
3 Most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you?
1- Trust/ I have learned about the importance of trust as it allows personal growth and enables me to reach the task I seek for which is to help others solve their problems, as I can increase confidence by reducing and eliminating unwanted behaviors to a minimum.
2-Friendliness and Conscience/ I learned that one of my major strengths is a good conscience in whatever work I do and this point in particular I am really good at compared to others and this leads to a good feeling and satisfying behavior that allows me to get into the flow so that I can be more effective and productive.
3-Cooperation, self-efficacy and proficiency / where cooperation between individuals is a basic necessity in society to achieve each other’s goals, and this is part of the responsibility of managing time. skill and knowledge) enables me to continue to the next level. Also the importance of self-care is important at this stage to keep my energy from draining! And the importance of optimism, smiling and enjoying during the trip, in addition to accomplishing tasks well.
What are three things you can highlight from the culture guide?
Expecting failure: Sometimes, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to not make mistakes and that failure is the end of the world. As a perfectionist, I often forget that it's okay to make mistakes. But 7cups really shows we can learn from our mistakes and continue to grow and that it is expected in life. The best leaders will fail a million times but by learning from mistakes they will only make the best and strongest leaders from what they have learned from their setbacks.
Take care of yourself and enjoy the journey. The first time I heard about self-care was when I joined cups. Learning how to take care of yourself is an important skill that we should all learn. In leadership, self-care is important because it's true that you can't pour from an empty cup. We can't be our best selves if we don't fully take care of ourselves or enjoy what we are doing. Being a leader on cups should not be a chore or checkmark on a to-do list. We must enjoy and love the work that we do also.
Self Efficacy: Being able to keep yourself organized, accountable, and able to know when to ask for help, are important skills to have when working in leadership. Finding our own balance between what we love to what we are good at to what is needed in the world builds our own confidence. The work that we do here, helps us become the best version of ourselves. It is our responsibility to treat others with kindness and warmth and to put in the work to make cups the best place possible.
@GlenM
The three most important things I learnt from the guide are
FAILURE
I think feel it is very important . It's very important for me to understand that it's OK to fail because I tend to set high standards for myself and when im not able to meet that Drags Me To Rock bottom.
SELF CARE
Self care is important because again I have set high standards for me so I have to be patient and it's ok to take short breaks.
COLLABORATE and not everyone is a good fit and it makes sense some can dance other can sing and its treat if they are together so sit back and watch , maybe i will play some instrument .
@Glen
1. Very few problems can be solved alone. So, collaborate. 2. Focus on the biggest and most important problems in front of us. That is what needs to be accomplished first. 3. Our collective efforts save lives. Take care of ourselves so we can help others.
@GlenM
The 3 most important things that I learned from the guide are :
1. It is okay to fail. I learned that in order to improve as a listener and an individual, it is okay for me to fail. Only through failure will I be able to learn and know what I should change and do better.
2. What I am doing matters. I learned that the work that I am doing on this platform, even though sometimes I can’t see it, I am helping others and making a difference in their lives no matter how small.
3. Equality is important. Treating people equally no matter what they have gone through or what they have done is important. This is important to me because some of the things that happen in life are circumstantial, meaning if a different person was put in that situation, the same results could be achieved. This also reminds me to be thankful for the kind of life that I have.
The 3 most important things I've learned from the guide are....
1. Self-Care is most important thing that you can do for yourself.
2. What I'm doing here is the most important thing in the world for these members.
3. Equality and listening and not judging members are the most important thing you can do for the members when they just need a listening ear.
