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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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
Please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you...
1) The guide has made me learn that 7 cups have very high expectations, that they provide plenty of encouragement and guidance to help you get there.
2) When an individual is conscientious, they are able to work hard, work smart and are able to get the job done, and you can have the trust they can do it.
3) You need to be someone who can work effectively, efficiently and independently meet deadlines, complete tasks and to be able to manage your workload (Accountability).
These are important to me because I am always hard working, organised, I care more about others than myself, I love to help others it has always been who I am, sometimes I can feel like I am not doing as much as I can be, so a little encouragement makes me feel positive again. I am studying psychology with counselling at university to become an art therapist.
3 most important things
1. 1. Clealy explained what are your expectations
2. 2. You will help aligning interests and strengths to solve core problems. You can help to present this information in different forums and we’ll also help you publish it.
3. 3. Encouragement to work hard and facing with failures. We can fail, but we need to keep trying and stay focused
@nlpinspiration facing failures is a great concept ! it is definitely hard to do, however, successful people learn this skill along the way and it becomes a lot easier for them after time <3
@GlenM the three most important things i learned from this guide were to set a system for myself rather than goals to achieve success, to understand myself and how i behave in order to improve and work on them for the betterment of my career, and to also acknowledge my strengths and weaknesses <3 setting a system for yourself rather than a goal helps list and organize plans in order for you to achieve that goal through a system. understanding yourself and your behavior helps you to take note of the changes to your behavior that may need to be made in order to achieve a certain role <3 acknowledging your strengths and weaknesses also helps with this as it gives you an understanding on what to improve on and how much you'll be able to accomplish currently.
@rrretsuko i'm sorry, i got confused and reread the forum as i thought this was supposed to correlate with our previous discussions and what we learned from them haha.
i believe that the three most important things are:
accountability: taking responsibility for your actions and practicing this as well as facing failures really contributes to a healthier working style and mindset !
growing through the path of problems: even when things get tough, it's good to practice pushing through these barriers as well in order to overcome them which gets easier and easier with time <3
collaborating: collaboration helps build connections within the workspace and also helps you to understand others better. it's important to take people's ideas and be accepting of new perspectives from your own :)
- We are building trust between people and making them believe that there's is still humanity left.
- We are taking responsibility it might not seem like it but it is.
- We are helping people change their perspective and trying to make them see the brighter side.
its important to remember how our work actually matters, one small act of kindest can change someone's life compleaty<3
@DarkPiT23 they are greatt points
@GlenM
The three most important things I learned in the guide and why they are important to me are:
- High Expectations and High Warmth - I really liked how this was written out, and I feel very valued here at 7cups knowing there are high expectations and high warmth. It makes for a very conducive, productive, and welcoming environment.
- Try Hard - I liked this, because even though we are volunteers, we need to remember to try our hardest to be the best listeners in every conversation we have.
- Take Care of Yourself - I liked this because I believe it is important, and not every organization takes the time to focus on this. It's nice to know that I'm valued, and that self-care is an important part of taking care of me.
@GlenM
1) your work matters: its something that easily gets ignored. People think that if you are unable to change people's mindset or their point of view you are failing. But they fail to see that their time and positive words are very powerful
2) trust- in any relationship trust is the key to create bonds and relationships
3) high warmth and high expectations- 7cups has helped to overcome anxiety, addiction, depression for people which has automatically had high expectations and people to have warmth and compassion where they are not getting in the outside world
@GlenM The three important things I learnt from the guide are
1. Accountability:
I should be able to manage my tasks as well as be accountable to the community and mission. I can collaborate and seek help during tough times.
2. High Expectations and High Warmth:
It is interesting to learn how both High expectations and high warmth are equally necessary for us to grow. It's always nice when we thrive more than we actually can due to the encouragement of the community. I hope I'll outperform as well from this positive and caring community.
3. Self efficacy:
Again trusting myself in the process will definitely lead to a tremendous result. It is very important but I often overlooked it. From here onwards, I'll trust myself more and grow confident personally and professionally.
Taking care of ourselves is important to deliver better work as well I can prevent the draining of our gas tank. I will keep all these points in mind.
I'm glad that 7 cups is flourishing in an online culture though it is tougher than an offline one (:
1. Your Work Matters.
- i have seen how community is born and grow from all around the world
2. Caring for People with Fewer Financial Resources
- it is a volunteering with all around to world. Informing members and listeners about conditions and offer them professional support
3. Not Everyone Will Be a Good Fit
- i have seen that monitoring chat is a good way to protect aim of this website. It steers in a better direction as members or listeners.
it's definitely amazing how we can meet so many diverse people from all over the world and put our differences aside to help one another with kindness and care. its a really wonderful thing <3
@dudewithaplan
I really like your answer, knowing that our work matters and caring for people who are financially instable is soo important ❤️
Three things that I learnt from the guide on Culture is:
1. Trust: One can rely on the community and the community encourages one another. Trust allows personal growth.
2. Collaboration: We grow by helping and supporting each other. Ideas from everyone is welcomed here. We are all on the same mission, on the same path, out here to solve a very important problem. No one is too distant to approach when it comes to problem solving and collaboration.
We Expect Failure: Failure is nothing to be worried about as long as as you are focused and trying. The key is to stay focused and keep trying.I think that's its a great concept to understand how to expect failure as long as we are actively working to improve afterwards
@GlenM
I learned firstly that I am expected to fail and it is acceptable as long as I use it as an opportunity to grow. This was important as I often really fear messing up and get anxious about making mistakes. Secondly, I learned that we strongly value trust and collaboration and depend on each other to use each other's strengths. Thirdly, I learned that solving the next biggest problem is our way of doing things. What matters is the problems in the present and being proactive to do what we can.
@anjellyna
I love your answer, those are really personal things you pointed out, and it shows what cups is 💙