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. I learned that what we do here, our work is important. We are contributing in making the world a better place, just by listening to others and letting them know we care and we are there for them.
2. Being kind is simply one of the best things. It allows you to open up, trust and just appreciate people.
3. it is very important to treat everyone equally. the community grows in a better pace if we respect and support one another.
Hello everyone,
Some big take a way's from this guide are the following, equality, being trusted & having fun. These are all important because we should be able to support whoever comes in, we should be able to trust one other & most importantly have fun.
@GlenM
3 most important things I have learn from this guides and the reason they are important to me are :
1. To be Trusted where 7 cups trust us to reach its mission and have proper behavior to be celebrated and deliberatly cultivated and respect the fact that trust is the top key to build a culture of trust where members can trust us to share their stories and emotions.
2. To be World Class Expert as listener where i can be super interested and engaged in works to help the members by staying by their side, we will face challenges needed to be work on timeframe and manner to achieve.
3. To be taken care of myself where we need to sleep well, exercise, eat well, stay hydrated, surround ourself with loving people, take breaks, ask for help and face our own personal problems while we take break as listener for a meantime.
@GlenM
Three important thing that I learnt from this guide and the reasons that I find them important are :
1. To be open minded. People all over the world need compassion and assuming or judging is hurtful! I learnt that I am very open minded..
2. To be supportive. Everyone needs someone that they can depend on! It's super important to be nurturing, reliable and dependant.
3. 7cups fosters a community of trust and that is very important to maintain and uphold. Confidentiality is the reason why people open up and are comfortable to share and it must be mantained for safety.
@GlenM
1. The trust. "We want to trust you and you want to trust us". I really like that system of reliability and accountability.
2. I also love the high-expectation aspect. We all have to put in the same amount of work and dedication to making 7 Cups what it is.
3. I like the collaboration aspect. It allows people to work together and improve their skills overall.
@GlenM
Highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
My work matters! This is very validating and builds my confidence as a leader. Sometimes it can feel like our work is insignificant, but even helping one person cope with their feelings is important!
I love that we can help so many people with fewer resources. This is an excellent place built by proactiveness that can thrive because trusted people have taken the necessary steps to become listeners.
Collaboration is a big one. I've seen a ton of collaboration here and it's amazing to see a thriving community still operating after many years.
According to the guide the three things that matters
are
Accountability:
Trust
equality
they are impirtant to me because they all work hand in hand in leadership roles
a good leader must be able to give a good account of themeselves and the members
trust is also needed in every aspect
The guide taught me that
Being Accountable
My Hardwork matters
trust
🌹 The guide taught me;
🌹 Try hard - for us to continue to work through things. Our work is important in that it helps others.
🌹 Collaborate - Helping others problem solve will help you to be more successful at 7 Cups. Few problems are solved alone. When you help others, they will be much more likely to return the favour and help you.
🌹 We expect failure - There is nothing to worry or be scared about as long as we are focused and will work. The key is to stay focused and keep trying.
@GlenM The three things I learned from the guide are the emphasis on helping those with less financial resources, helping people to become experts, and solving problems that matter. I feel like these things interrelate well. For example, 7 Cups solved a systemic problem with our mental heal care system by offering free training and in turn those people would help others in financial need mental health peer support.