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.
The foremost thing i learnt is that my work matters
While joining this site, i had a hope that my efforts make a difference in someone's life even if it is as simple as bringing a smile to someone's face
Friendliness and conscientiousness
These two are very essential for the conversation we have with the members they must feel comfortable and at ease while sharing their thoughts and feelings and must feel like they are talking to a friend
Equality
Its very very important to treat all equally.. the community grows in a better pace if we respect and cooperate with one another. If we can support each other throught the highs and lows we build a stronger "us" and a stronger "me" as well.
@TheMetanoia
Try your best to help others, our work on 7 cups matters.
@GlenM
The main thing I learnt is that my work on 7cups matters, my work saves lives
Two other things I also learnt:
1) We build a culture of trust and
2) high expectations and high warmth
These are extremely important as when we talk to members, they trust us not to give information to anyone else and we are warm and kind to them as that it what they need
@GlenM thank you! I got full score in the test 😊
@TheMetanoia Hi there, unfortunately the test did not have a method to collect your username so can you please redo it?
Also tagging @azuladragon34 @IvyL in case you did it before the username field was added on to the test!
@SoulfullyAButterfly
I got a full score and I put my username
@azuladragon34 awesome, congrats!
The three most important things that I have learned from the 7 Cups Culture Guide are:
▶︎ The importance of Trust
Unfortunately, I have had various interactions with other users in the community in the past which have brought down my trust in others, and I have found it difficult to regain trust in my peers at time. Being able to trust others is an integral of creating a healthy and positive community, and working to foster trust is a practice that I am actively trying to improve at.
▶︎ Failure is expected
I tend to push myself to achieve perfection in my activities both on and off 7 Cups, which has often turned into a fear of failure. However, failure should not be feared, but embraced, as it offers the opportunity to learn, grown, and improve, as well as build trust with others in the community.
▶︎ The importance of Accountability
Accountability ensures that high-quality work is completed in a timely and efficient manner, and without accountability, it is difficult to make accomplishments as a community and create success. At times, I have struggled with accountability with my own work on and off 7 Cups, which negatively impacts the projects that I partake in, so ensuring that I hold myself accountable and manage my time well is important to me both in my personal life and on 7 Cups.
Ivy 🐑 Through the Fire, You will Prevail
@IvyL
I, myself, try to have accountability in all facets of my life. Whether it be on 7 Cups, work, or relationships. Accountability allows us to also have integrity and take responsibility for our actions.
@shiningDay80
I also agree! Accountability is vital for strong productivity!
These are truly a. Recipe for success @IvyL
@VioletVenom yes!
@Lysandra
I agree! Failure is looked down upon but realizing how important it is to success is crucial! :)
@GlenM this has been an amazing journey!
The 3 most important things that I have learned are:
- Volunteering work not only is satisfying, it has advantages for us as well. I realise that we are experts according to our unique interests and strengths. What is important to me is that in a community like 7 Cups, I can use my unique ideas and strengths to give back and improve our community whilst still learning in the process!
- Collaboration leads to greater success. I have enjoyed collaborating with so many wide topics and areas on site. The respect and opportunities this community offers opens up no hesitance to think og creative and fun ways that offer collaboration. This is important to me because in my opinion, once you collaborate on ideas, you not only have fun but discussing each others' ideas opens up room for so much more perceptions. You begin to see things from different angles and the end result is usually a beautiful, inclusive result - due to various collaborated strengths and ideas, the combined hard work goes a long way. Together, everyone achieves more!
- Self-care is Important. I have to include this fact as part of my top 3 list, because to begin with, I did not know what self-care is until I joined 7 Cups 2 years ago. What is important to me is that our community cares not about the quality of our work but the well-being of those behind this work. We have honest conversations on self-care, we help one another set healthier boundaries... and ultimately we are not only flourishing as a community but as individuals.
@SoulfullyAButterfly
I think you chose three really great and important points from the 7Cups Culture Guide. I also agree about Self-Care is the super important so we arn't pouring from empty cups as Listeners and Leaders.
I didnt include the aspect of Voluntunteering having multi levels and types of rewards but I so appreciate your inclusion of that and the reminder of that.
:) Best of luck on your LDP journey !
Equality
Everyone deserves to be treated with respect, regardless of their backgrounds. We are all human!
Trust
A lot of times, its hard to talk about any issues someone has if there is no trust. Its so important to have that!
We invest in you
I love this! People come here with hopes to get better, and we all want to help as much as we can ❤
@Austin904 definitely!
Yes I agree with you. Equality is very important. This makes a person feel much better that they are treated equally with others. I'm glad that here on 7 cups, everyone is treated equally and with love and respect.
@GlenM
Your Work Matters
There are some days where I get overwhelmed knowing I need to volunteer because Im not sure I will be able to help that person. Its the thought that counts when I click one a member or they request me. I know I am doing my best with each person I come into contact with.
Collaborate
Being able to work with a team is important because it can be draining to try to save the world by ourselves. When collaborating, we can bounce ideas off of each other and steer each other in a successful path.
We Believe in Equality
There are a lot of people who come into 7 cups and have never felt equal to their peers or anyone else for that matter. Being able to participate in 7 cups without feeling judged even a little bit is giving people hope and relief.
@GlenM
The 3 most important things I learned from the guide are:
We should expect failure - I am someone who doesn't like to fail at things. I know it's an incredibly large aspect of life and is inevitible but it always makes me feel bad about myself and, quite often, experiencing failure makes me feel as though I have let others down. In everything I do both in my personal life and 7 cups life I feel this way. For example, when I don't do as well in a test then I feel upset and feel I let my teacher down. What is written in the guide is very important in showing us that failure isn't the end of a journey it's showing us that something just isn't working and allows us to expand on that. Luckily, I have gotten much better at accepting my failures and realising where I went wrong and what I can do to improve.
Self care is vital - I am a person who tends to like to do everything at once. Since coming on to 7 cups I've realised that there's no way I can do that and remain healthy so I've set up methods of self care (like certain times in the day that are for self care activities). Also, if we aren't taking care of ourselves then it's much harder to help others! There's nothing wrong with taking time to ourselves in order to refresh.
We don't need to plan our way to be successful - I am someone who loves plans and doesn't like uncertainty but it's important to remember that it's a part of life and that life can be very unpredictable! Instead of making a plan, having something unprecedented happen and then feeling bad about ourselves for not getting to our end goal, taking things step by step and solving the problem right in front of you can help you in becoming successful. (Very similar to the goals vs systems conversation in discussion 4)
I have to agree with all. Three points . Point 3. You do not always have to go on well known path and it's ok to go the less known path @bookworm274.
I agree with you. Especially with the second point which is self care. We need to help ourselves in order to help others. If we don't take proper care of our own health, we can't help others properly.
@bookworm274
I agree! Self care is super important because you have to make sure you're doing well before helping others! :)
@GlenM
1. Take Care of Yourself: It is important necessary to remind yourself and others that you and your needs are important too.
2. Collaborate: Collaboration with others provides us with an opportunity to learn from others especially how they work as a team, their successes and mistakes.
3. We Expect Failure: Failure is an inevitable part of life. We are always going to fail at the majority of the things that we are trying to do. What matters is what we do after we have failed: try again or just give up.
@CheeryMango
I agree that taking care of yourself is super vital! The collaboration seems like it goes hand in hand with this and I appreciate you highlighting that as an important part of the 7Cups culture.
I also think that the expectation of failure is a great thing to keep in mind for those harder days, so it is a little easier to care about yourself.
Best of luck on your LDP Journey! :)
@CheeryMango
I agree with collaborating because it helps people find fresh ideas and is more effective! :)
Three things I learned:
Caring for People with Fewer Financial Resources.
As someone who came from an unprivilieged background, I understand what it is to not be able to provide some things because of few financial resources. Nonetheless, reading this provoked an impact; and made me reflect on how some people seek support here just because they do not have access to mental health professionals. I believe that this fact inspires me to a greater extent to grow in 7 Cups as a listener, and provide the best support as my skills let me.
Trust
I enjoyed the cultural aspect of how we want to be able to develop a mutual trust. This is something that it's very hard, but needed indeed. This is something that goes both ways, and it is important to keep that present constantly in the culture of 7 Cups.
We Invest in You
I never took in mind what it actually meant to do work that is personally fulfilling. Those three aspects: work that I am good at, solves a problem or meets a goal stablished, and that is interesting to myself are things I won't forget. I'm pretty confident I will apply this in my professional life outside of 7 Cups.
Excellent reflection! <3