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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Highlight the three most important things you have learnt from our guide and why are they important to you
Trust
Trust is a fundamental quality that drives all relationships in the world. Regardless of it being a work relationship or a romantic relationship, trust is the foundation that builds the success of a relationship. A first good impression that one gives another is the chance that they can be trusted on a particular task or activity. I tend to take my relationships seriously regardless of it being personal or work. I tend to give the impression to my acquaintances that I can be trusted and I hope to receive the very same. With trust comes confidence, stability, nurture and growth.
Self efficacy or Mastery
Self efficacy or mastery is my personal confidence meter that allows me to complete tasks and duties. With every step in life a challenge bigger and broader appears and it's not a moment to be shunned away from but rather it is the moment to build up the confidence and determination to overcome it, celebrate the victory and move on. This is a skill that I learnt through 7 cups and it has been favouring my growth in both personal and work life. P.S (This term was first proposed by one of my favorite psychologists Albert Bandura)
Collaborate
Before my journey on 7 cups began, I used to be a solo working individual who didn’t much enjoy working in groups. 7 cups taught me the importance of collaboration and how sometimes the best way to solve an issue apart from personal input and experiences will be the opinions and thoughts of others. This will allow me to further increase my factual knowledge and allow me to make social connections.
@GlenM
for me, all of them are important in a good balance
Three things that highlights me are:
1) Collaborate
2) taking care of self
3) trust
@GlenM
please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
Trust
The trust that is shown in me for acheiving the goals and provide world class services to people who cannot go anywhere else is important. It also makes me accountable.
Accountability
To manage the work load effciently and to finish the alotted tasks within deadlines will ensure the quality of interactions.
Collaboration
Community is imporatnat and to be actively involved and seek help because the ultimate aim is to do better and help others, community and collaboration has that power, what one person cannot achieve alone, a number of people together can.
1. I have learned that our work is important and that we have an impact on others. We are making the world a better place, just by letting others know we care and we are there for them.
2. Failing is normal and ok. If we never fail, we will never learn. If we fail, we avoid making the previous mistake and we learn that it was wrong.
3. It is important to try your best to help others because our work on 7 cups matters.
@GlenM
Hi,
I hope you are doing well!
So three important things which I learned from the guide are:
1) Trust : As I believe in every relationship whether professional, personal or otherwise, trust is the basis of everything. I like how the community here is trustworthy which I have found after an year of my stay here. Its important that we continue to build on it and grow trust among us.
2) Collaborating : As being a neutral listener and empowering the person to find solution of their problems by just actively listening and putting empathy is the best example of collaboration. Its important that the listener and the member work together towards the problem by collaborating and using sources at hands.
3) Self care : Its one of things I love about 7cups, those self breaks and alerting us when we need a break is an important feature as it can get overwhelming sometimes. Taking those short or long self care breaks while making it easier to return is a greature feature.
Cheers!
Hello Everyone!
The three most important things that I have learned from this guide are as follows:
1. Our work Matters and Failure is expected: Work, efforts, and support of each and everyone here on 7 Cups matters a lot. Every second of being here is making a great impact on one's life. We are supporting peoples and changing their lives. Truly, our work matters a lot. Also, I never like failing at things, it gives me a down and bad feeling but this is so important to know that Failure is expected and that is complete "Okay". Very nicely said in the guide, as Edison said that he didn’t fail 1000 times, he just learned 1000 ways of not solving the problem. That is very true, each time we fail, we get a new way of not solving a problem. Failure will definitely help us to shine and come out with flying colors of success.
2. Importance of Trust and Accountability: Trust is so important, it is what helps us and cups to reach the mission. Truly said, without trust, we cannot grow and reach the mission. It is important to have trust and develop trustworthy behavior. Being accountable to myself, my team, my community, and my mission are much important as well. It greatly helps and will help in getting the success and reaching the mission and ultimately growing.
3. Self-Care is Crucial: I generally like to do things in an organized manner and complete all the things at once or before taking any rest. But then I realized, that self-care is so important to have a complete overall balance in life. With an already drained mind, we cannot help or support others. Self-Care break also helped me a lot whenever I took it to relax and get calm. It is very important to self-care!
Thank You!
Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
The guide was a lovely read. Thank you for taking the time to write this :)
Three things, I found the most important were:
1. Trust. As this is something, I find vital in my personal life, too, it’s appreciable how the same can be said for the 7Cups family. With the vast number of people engaging on this site, trust is quite important, whether between a member and listener or a listener and listener.
2. The balance between performance and acceptance. While solving problems and facing them directly are key, it doesn’t mean that it should be done at the expense of the respective person. A caring and accepting environment is crucial in helping a person grow which ultimately translates into the listener becoming better at what they do and thus the entire 7Cups team.
3. Self-care. It’s quite easy to get lost in helping others and thinking that self-care means being selfish as others have so many problems to deal with. It’s actually something, I, too, struggle with making burn-outs a norm. So the phrase, “In order to perform well at work, you need to also take good care of yourself when you are not at work,” resonated with me quite a bit.
Trust- Trust is the foundation of any relationship. When a leader is trustworthy people count to them and trust them with important things.
Trying hard- Hard work is definitely important because it is only through hard work that we can achieve the goals of our life. We know that hard work is the key of sucess as it helps us to get better and confident each day, each moment.
Equality- In the world of 7 Cups, every person is treated with equal respect, enjoys equal freedom, and equal rights irrespective of the gender orientation, race, religion, or any other difference. Equality and diversity brings together people from different backgrounds together to achieve success.
@GlenM
The three most important things I learned from your guide are that I’ll need to work on staying motivated in the future, that the LDP program is for me, and that I will gain a lotta positive energy being a leader in 7 Cups, and why these 3 things are important to me is because I want to succeed in the LDP program, because doing something that matches me feels right, and because positive energy is very beneficial.
@GlenM
Trust is important to me because with a foundation of trust I believe I can help people open up and get the help they deserve.
Strengths-Based
Using my strengths is important to help members. Using my expertise in a certain area allows me to connect with the member and provide more help to them.
Collaborate:
If we work together the community benifits. It is important to create a freindly community where everyone can collaorate and have their say.