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.
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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) The fact that my work matters. Be it doing something very minute to something very big - all of it matters because we are saving lives and that's more than anything else I could ever ask to do.
2) Trust! Because that is the foundation of any sort of growth and extremely important in a community like this.
3) Expecting failure because not a lot do. Edison famously said that he didn’t fail 1000 times, he just learned 1000 ways of not solving the problem - I think that's very important to understand and can be so motivating to do more and do better!
The three most important parts for me is :
Failures - It's the pathway to our success, growth, and learning. It's okay to fail as it is a part of the process.
Self-care - the need to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health.
Accountability - We should be responsible and accountable as listeners as this is a wonderful platform to help others.
The three most important things that I have gleaned from the guide are as follows:
Quality: it is the responsibility of every single member of the 7Cups community to uphold the overall quality of the community. Each person has a role and must adhere to the community’s guidelines and explicit culture. Every person who strives to fulfill their role upholds the community’s quality and helps “fill the tank”.
Trust: because of the nature of 7Cups’ community, trust is a crucial element of the whole system. Members need to be able to trust listeners, listeners need to be able to trust the system, and every single individual needs to be able to trust the overall system. Trust is what allows people to flourish, which is one of 7Cups’ most prominent goals.
Responsibility: Every single tenet of 7Cup’s culture, particularly the two I’ve cited above, rely on individuals accepting and embracing personal responsibility. Listeners, particularly, are taking on an important and honorable responsibility through their service to the community. They need to accept the responsibility of time management, of professional conduct, and of accountability.
Overall, I think that the impression which struck me was one of structured compassion. Compassion is a deeply intrinsic human skill, which while practiceable and improvable, is innate to all. However, 7Cups seeks to elevate each individual’s capacity for compassion through key tenets such as the three I’ve listed above.
@GlenM the 3 most important things that I learned from the guide are:
• we need to have trust in each other. Without trust I believe that our community here in 7cups will not strong enough to face challenges ahead of us.
• we need to have high expectations and high warmth. If one of these aspects is not applied, our objective to have our people in this community felt supported or being heard are unlikely incomplete.
• most importantly, I learned that I need to take care of myself too. Taking good care of myself will be able myself to help others. Plus, helping people is my passion.
@kdsyahirah true, I think trust can be really important, especially in online formats and with so many different people, we have to be able to trust each other :) and take care of ourselves too! That's always a tough one for me, but I think if we trust our teammates, it can be easier to ask for a break
1. Failure is expected and nothing to be afraid of. I was a little surprised by this, but it makes so much sense. We all slip up and make mistakes, and what matters isn't how we messed up but how we move forward. By making mistakes we learn how to prevent ourselves and others from making the same mistakes next time, and help make each other better
2. Taking care of ourselves. It's soooooo easy to forget this! In the midst of all the commitments and tasks and members, I do sometimes get tired, and I need to remember to set healthy boundaries, and do more self care
3. Have fun and be fulfilled. Being a listener and a leader on 7Cups is supposed to be aan enjoyable and fulfilling experience, not something to be stressed over. Sometimes, it can be stressful applying for a new role or taking a more difficult chat, but there are always resources to help relax and come back to a healthy emotional state afterwards. Ultimately, all of our work is voluntary, and we only commit at a level that works for us
@hopebeyondpain I super agree about how taking care of yourself is so easy to forget! And I think it plays really well into your enjoyment of the site too. Saying no when you are trying not to take on too much both keeps the work fun and takes care of your mental health :)
@hopebeyondpain
Definitely - taking care of ourselves is so easy to be forgotten, but essential at the same time!!
The three things I learnt from the 7 Cups Culture guide are:
1) "Failure is growth." I'd like to mention a quote I read on failure, "the difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure."
2) Whatever little I do to help someone out, matters! Also, "with a few chosen words, we have the power to either make someone's day or ruin it."
3) Take care of yourself and have fun during the journey. In my opinion, this is the most important one of all! :)
1) High expectations and high warmth is important in any organisation, especially 7 cups.
2) Support and collaboration are essential to achievement in the 7 Cups community.
3) Strength-based work benefits both the organisation and the individual.
Please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
- Caring for people with fewer financial resources shows how dedicated 7cups is for being a mental health system for people of all ages, incomes, and backgrounds to get the help they need. Help can be as simple as a person saying, I understand. And it deserves to be at a fair, if not, free cost. There are so many people who don't feel heard; who feel abused and trapped by their communities, and 7cups is uniting the world with love and an empathetic ear.
- I was excited to hear about the High Expectations and High Warmth direction 7cups is going towards. Progress from every community member only shows when there are high expectations put upon us, but it must also be met with high warmth and support. Everyone deserves to be treated with love, but also encouraged in a way that sees your potential and pushes you.
- I appreciate how transparent you are about Behaviors that Drain Our Tanks; it is important to lay out the consequences that will happen with doing things that don't align with 7cups mission of compassion. Being rude to others, being distracted from what's needed of you on the site, being in denial and making excuses are all no-no's and it is important to lay out expectations of not doing these behaviors which show a misalignment with supportive others.
@Skyy0 interesting that we picked the same first 2! I think they're pretty important points. The draining one is also important, especially in work that can require a lot of emotions, it's important to keep in mind what drains us so we don't feel burnt out
Please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
Trust: It takes years to build trust in anyone but once it is built it remains lifelong. I have learned that we must trust each other on 7 Cups as a team and only then we will be able to work together effectively which will prove beneficial for our & others' well-being. Trust for me is an important component because I cannot work with someone I do not trust.
Failure: At every step of our lives, there will come a time where we will have to face failure either we like it or not. So, why not expect failure as a part and parcel of life? Failure for me is important so that I could appreciate my success in a better manner and don't take my success for granted. I am proud to say that I have failed in my life many times & the reason why I am proud of is that I survived failure and was successful after hard work with dedication.
Taking Care - Self-Care: We as listeners, forget to take care of ourselves while taking care of members or people around us. When I first became a listener, I was so excited that I thought it is my responsibility to listen to not just the members over 7 Cups but also people outside 7 Cups. I would leave everything and only listen to people onsite and offline. There was some kind of addiction & I was indeed addicted to 7 Cups of Tea. It was only then when I realized that I am overdoing it & I need to stop for my well-being. I can only take care of others if I take care of myself first. Therefore, since that day, I have made self-care my priority!
@GlenM
Failure is expected
As a perfectionist, this is really comforting. I am working on reminding myself that I can't be perfect and that it is okay to make mistakes.
If you are good at staying focused and solving problems, you will do great at 7Cups
This makes me feel good because I consider myself to be strong in those skills. Its nice knowing that I am capable of succeeding here
Helping others problem-solve will help you to be more successful at 7 Cups
It's nice knowing I have a community of people who are ready and want to help me if I need it. I am wiling to do the same for others :)