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...
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@GlenM
please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
The things I learned from the guide were:
- Being friendly and conscientious.
- Utilizing my strengths for my work here.
- Expecting failure and learning from it.
These are important to me as they are my set-goals for whatever work I take up on 7 cups. Apart from that, these are the points that I can apply in my personal life and gain something from it.
@KimByeongIn Guess we have similar interests from the guide. Thank you for sharing!
@GlenM
please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
-Solving Problems that matter: what I appreciate about reading this in the guide is that it helps people remember to think of the long term effects behind our actions. Moreover to have the focus so one can think of the problems in a deeper sense and be able to solve them more effectively in the long run For example it may be easier to ignore what’s going on in front of you or say a mean remark to temporarily to stop the situation but what’ll happen is that fear and disorganization comes to play and more people will come to disrespect you whereas taking the moment to focus on the underlying issue and solving that my using the knowledge and responding that helps people feel understood and get things across
-We expect Failure: what I like about reading this part is that it helps shake off the inner fears of ruining or not quite hitting the goal you anticipate and instead mainly use those times as learning moments to simply grow. We would acknowledge what was done wrong or missed and continue our motive and mission to make it a better environment for ourselves and everyone in the community
-You have a gas tank and 7Cups has a gas tank: this helps one visually see how a community and service emulated the same as an individual in that just like individuals the 7cups community also has an energy level and set of limits that can fluctuate up and down at a moments notice. Once we see this we can attain our motivation to keep doing what needs to be done and know when we should step back to rely someone else and vise Cerda and give that person the needed support. For example one day one leader initiates a forum or chat and another would give support when needed such as if moderators are needed and other days people take turns on how they play their old.
@GlenM
1. We expect failure - Failure is nothing to be scared of and nothing to worry about as long as you are focused and trying.
2. Strengths-based - You have strengths – things that you are just really good at when compared with others. Operating out of your strengths feels good, is personally fulfilling, and enables you to hit flow states.
3. High Expectations & High Warmth - We are all accountable. When we are not performing as well as we want, we ask for help and feedback so that we can perform better.
@fancycloud1234 Thank you for sharing what you liked about that. The line where it says we should be afraid to failure has changed my perspective about things
@fancycloud1234
i think all 3 points you brought up is important for you on cups journey.
@GlenM
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.
1) My work matters - This is important because I have lived a life of reject and neglect where nobody cares about me, and this work ethic gives me so much happiness and confidence,
2) 7 cups wants to push us to be the best we can be by offering a wide range of training, love and support whilst also being proactive and ensuring the wellbeing of the company and it's listeners and members - As above, it's nice to know there are great caring people here who actually care about my successes, nobody has ever given me a chance before.
3) 7 cups allows people to take a break when needed - This is a key thing to me if I ever get too overwhelmed, not only can I take a step back, but support is there for me too on my member account.
@iCareUK I agree, those are few nice points mentioned in the culture guide. self-care is really important
@iCareUK
I truly think self care to a must to be successful on cups.
@GlenM The three most important things I have learned from the guide is
1st-: Trust. I believe trust is the foundation of 7 cups. Not only here it is the foundation of any relationship outside cups too. Confidentiality is one of the most important guidelines of 7 cups and I believe it is our duty to follow that. Our members are very brave in trusting and confiding in us and it is our responsibility to live up to their expectations of trusting us.
2nd-: Investing in us. Listening is something I am good at, interests me and I can work and help my members reach their solution to the problem they are facing. Leadership role here also satisfies the above role. It is something I enjoy doing, I am good at, and I can help people in their journeys here at cups. I have also learnt about my strengths which can be useful in my role here as a leader. I also want this program to make me an expert in what I do as there is a lot to learn from this leadership program and I enjoy being a part of this.
3rd-: collaborate. I believe through collective discussions among people can help us reach a solution to a problem and I aim on doing that. There is a saying in Hindi, which says 2 is better than 1 and 3 is better than two people. I believe that. I am open to new ideas and constructive feedback and learn from them. Failures are important as there is so much to learn from them. As a leader, it is important to be open to feedback and I am ready to learn and improve myself.
4th-: Accountability. Being efficient, effective and completing a certain task before the given deadline is something I can commit to and work towards it
@yourbuddy30
i think trust and getting the work done goes hand and hand.
Please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
1 it’s ok. To make mistakes since mistakes is a good chance for a learning time.
2 I think it’s important to master all your skills before moving up to a higher roles.
3 it’s okay if a certain role domain is not the right fit for right fit for you.
@GlenM
please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
1. I learned how valuable and impactful our work truly is. I think it's amazing that we help over a million people each month, and that is something to keep in mind because we're impacting lives every day.
2. I learned about behaviors that drain us. These can be common behaviors and easy to do, especially getting distracted. But it is important to work on tasks that will keep our tanks full instead of draining them.
3. It is important to be accountable for our actions and what we do. Being accountable for ourselves will impact our work and commitment to what we do and our team and community as a whole.
@GlenM
1.Grit.
Drive yourself, mental agility to push past barriers.
2.Believe in Equality.
Value equally everyone's background, work, and ideas; collaborate across teams and levels.
3.Have fun and keep full.
Enjoy the experience, take care of yourself in order to give back
@GlenM
3 things I learned from the guide was that our culture is made up of working hard: which is trying our best and improving as time goes on, trust: which is being someone that someone can depend and feel safe around, and that failure is important to learn from your mistakes.