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.
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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.
Three things I learned from the 7 Cups Culture Guide:
1. We expect failure.
I thought this was a super interesting point! I find a lot of times, I want to show others I am capable, and I try to make everything perfect. Failure should be something that is expected, and it's totally okay if you are actively trying!
2. Trust
For a platform that offers help to people, trust is one of the most important things! If the members do not trust the community, then they won't reach out for the help they need.
3. Try Hard
I think this is another super important point! When everybody in the community tries hard, and works on being the absolute best listener/community member they can be, the community excels! Everything flows smoothly, and it's a supportive and positive environment!
As mentioned culture can be tougher to be made in an online setting but is still important as well. You can currently see these formed cultures in the sharing circles and listener chatrooms were members and listeners are having a friendly chat with each other. These are built on 3 important things as which are trust, High expectations, and taking care of yourself. For a peer support website to work, you need to trust the people around you to support you but to also have your back. Without then it feels your fighting an uphill battle for yourself. With the expectations that follows the trust we have expectations for each other so that you fit the norms that we have set up in here. Lastly, taking care of yourself is important for culture as we are only as strong as the people that we have in here as well.
@GlenM
The 3 things I've learnt from the 7cups guide and why they're important to me, is as follows:-
1) Trust
@ashlyntheordinary
1) Trust:- Just like how trust is important in a family, it is just as important in 7cups. Trust has help create 7cups a warm and compassionate place for different members all across the world to share how they feel.
2) Friendliness and Conscientiousness:- Friendliness increases trust as through friendliness, one is able to make the community more closer. Through conscientiousness, one can strive to work harder and smarter.
3) I also learnt that Failure is acceptable as through failure, success is reached. Failure should never be seen as a threat but instead a stepping stone to your future experiences and achievements.
Trust is important to me as if a person trusts me, it means that they are able to tell me anything knowing that I'll be by their side and vice versa. Friendliness and Conscientiousness helped me grow closer with the 7cups family and help me motivate myself to work harder. Failure is one of the most important things in my life, I used to be afraid of failure but now I embrace it as failures are the main reason to my successes
High Expectations and High Warmth.
This is important to me because of the word 'accountable'. I think that taking accountability for your actions is incredibly important. If you make a mistake, own up to it and admit you made a mistake. Then learn from it.
We Invest In You.
I think it's important to follow the chart. Do work that you're interested in, work you're good at, and work that means something or solves a problem. I appreciate that the site is willing to work with us and help us figure out the best course of action for us regarding roles or even careers in the real world.
We Expect Failure.
This one really hits home. I have always been terrified of failing, and I'm sure I will continue to be. But reading through this guide and talking about how failure is not something that needs to be feared brings a lot of comforts. Tying back into the fact that the site and the people here are willing to work with us on this, it means a lot that you are all willing to help us work through our failures and celebrate our successes with us.
@GlenM
The Three Most Important Things I Learned From the 7 Cups Culture Guide
Solving Problems that Matter
At first, I had this off thought that perhaps that term meant that only some problems matter, and we should only solve those problems, making me perceive the statement as something negative. However, after reading the description and thinking more about it, I began to realize that it's something very worth remembering and understanding. To understand that we need to prioritize certain problems. To understand that we need to focus. It is something that will definitely stick by me.
We Expect Failure
I think this one was something that I personally need to keep on reminding myself, and by reading this guide, it reminded me once again that everyone fails; it's something part of our learning process. I am sure it is not just me that feels that we are a failure sometimes. It's something that we can't escape because we all fail, but we need to remember to get up and learn, which is honestly not as easy as it sounds. There are so many instances in my personal life that makes me feel like a failure, and there are even some on 7 Cups even though I have not been here very long, but it's really important to pick ourselves up and continue. I really like how the guide even mentions that "we expect failure" not "don't give up" nor "you can do it" nor "failure is common" because it gives a sense of (I'm not sure if this makes sense) empowerment and understanding.
Not Everyone is a Good Fit
This definitely was both something I expected yet was still surprised. Indeed, some roles and even 7 cups in general isn't the perfect fit for some people. I have to say though the fact that the guide mentioned, "we will ask you to transition out sooner rather than later" if you aren't a good fit, was very straightfoward and (I'm not sure if I'm explaining this right) wow. ahaha, I do think the wording could be slightly less and it did get me thinking if 7 Cups is a good for me. I want to say that 7 Cups is a perfect fit, but if I were to be honest with myself, only parts of 7 Cups is a good place for me, making me truly understand which roles and opportunities I will be exploring on 7 Cups. This section really hit close to home, and to be honest, it brought up some deep thinking on my part about fitting in society in general as well (ahaha I am philosophical that way).
@DayDreamWithYou
Love your answer about failure, I couldn't say it better.
@GlenM
The three most important things i learnt is that people who are interested in their work tend to become experts, and that 7cups helps us to manage this. 7cups also believes that everyone is equal here, no matter where they are from, their orientation etc. and the last thing is that 7cups does expect people to fail many times, which shouldn't be as a negative thing, but as a positive impact in everyone because it helps them learn better.
@GlenM
This is a lovely and informative course!
I learned that:
1. Failure is something normal. I sometimes feel pressured by the expectant society around us to be perfect and flawless, and so, I forget that we're all human. We make mistakes, and that's okay. What's important is that we learn to better ourselves.
2. It's good to work in your strengths. I often feel like I force myself to be good at things I'm not strong at or I don't necessarily enjoy, simply because I don't believe my strengths are good enough. However, now I know, that our strengths are our assets, and we should be proud of them and use them the best we can.
3. Sufficient self-care is a must. I admit sometimes I push myself too hard, or sometimes I give myself too many breaks, hence resulting in stressful or uneventful days. But now, I'm taking steps to giving myself nice breaks whenever I need them.
Thanks, Glen, for all you've done!
@MagicSky28202
Love your answer, we always work ourselves too hard and it brings tremendous tress, glad to have someone like you on 7 cups of tea
The three most important parts that spoke to me are:
The importance of failures. Its the pathway to our successes, growth and learning. Its a part of the process.
The need for self-care. Ourselves, and how we're doing are so so important.
The art of accountability. We all have a role to play in helping 7cups being the wonderful place it is. So we should be responsible and accountable for that.
@GlenM
@GlenM
Hello! How are you?
I care a lot about the high expectations and the high warmth. We basically keep all the good at a great level, to provide the best and only the best. I think that s amazing! And it is very important, partly because that helps to the supporting environment. We support. That s what we do. And I am proud of that, because I learned that my works matters. I change lives, even if I find it hard to believe. Everyone here changes lives. We support, we care, and we provide love. That s 7 Cups.
@Daf8
I definitely agree with the high expectations and high warmth aspect of the culture. It is extremely important to make sure that with high expectations comes support otherwise people are going to get burnt out and feel under appreciated.
@InvaderStitch
Exactly! Thank you for your words
@Daf8
All three you have chosen are really important <3 Also loved the `hello, how are you <3`
@Ines1229
Hi! I need to thank you for your kindness and appreciation. And I mean it: how are you, amazing being?
- “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” — Henry Ford
