How to Create a Problem Solving Ecosystem on 7 Cups

7 Cups is an ecosystem. See this video to learn more. What we have collectively built can help you create your own problem-solving ecosystem on 7 Cups. See the below steps as a virtuous circle that strengthens as you loop through each of the steps, again and again, to more effectively care for your group of people.

At present, we can look at 7 Cups as having different parts that seem isolated from one another. With the ecosystem model, we realize they are connected and we work deliberately to strengthen the connections so that we can more effectively help people. For example, each community will soon have its own training path for volunteer listeners and a growth path for members. If I am part of the Anxiety community, then I can take a training path in how to better support people with anxiety. If I struggle with anxiety, then I can take a growth path to learn how to better manage my anxiety. Eventually, all communities will also have their own researchers as well. Anxiety researchers will help anxiety community leaders measure how to better train listeners and provide more effective help to members.

Steps

What follows below are the steps you can take to create your own problem solving ecosystem on 7 Cups. If you are a sub-community leader, then you are already well on your way. You can see examples below for how a current sub-community would look as a fully functioning ecosystem as well as an example for a health condition that is not yet addressed on 7 Cups.

1. Name the problem that you would like to solve.

Current Subcommunity Example (Disability Support): Problem: Invisible Disabilities are specific aspects of the general disability support needed worldwide - these conditions are also chronic yet not supported and stigmatized or not addressed.

Prospective Subcommunity Example (Heart Disease and Stroke Support): Background to Problem: Studies have shown the prevalence of mental health conditions after heart disease/stroke.

Problem: The mental health aspect of heart disease and stroke has not been the focus of health or mental health care systems.

Important Note: SubCommunity is an ecosystem to address a problem on the 7 Cups platform. Subcommunity is formed of three key components: Forums, Group Support and Q&A. All three have their own role in the development and growth of the subcommunity. Forums cover the activities like check ins, forum discussions, resources, communication and help center on topics in a forum space, Group Support covers the activities like check ins, open chats, support sessions, guided discussions based on topic in a chat room setup. And, Q&A is a dedicated space where users submit their questions on topic and if anyone has an answer or response to the question, they submit their thoughts. All three components need to have their own set of general & specific participation guidelines that allow the activities to take place in a moderated environment to foster the support culture.

2. Name the solution (usually the opposite of the problem)

Current Subcommunity Example (Disability Support): Solution: Invisible disabilities will have a thriving community that includes members, listeners, and researchers that work together to provide better support to people struggling with disabilities. The ecosystem will include a community/forums, training paths, growth paths, and research studies.

Prospective Subcommunity Example (Heart Disease and Stroke Support): Solution: Heart disease and stroke support will be a thriving community that includes members, listeners, and researchers that work together to provide better support to people struggling with mental health conditions after heart disease/stroke. The ecosystem will include a community/forums, training paths, growth paths, and research studies.

3. Identify the group of people that will volunteer and work hard to help you solve the problem. One subgroup will likely consist of people that have been impacted by the problem and now have resources to help. The second subgroup will likely be altruistic people that just want to help.

Current Subcommunity Example (Disability Support): People who face chronic disabilities of an invisible nature and passionate mental health/disability advocates could help solve and address the problem.

Prospective Subcommunity Example (Heart Disease and Stroke Support): People recovering from heart disease and stroke, their caregivers, and healthcare professionals can work together to help solve and address challenges this community faces.

4. Create a training path (growth path for listeners) on 7 Cups to support the volunteer group and give them skills so they can more effectively help solve the problem.

Current Subcommunity Example (Disability Support): The Disability Help Guide for Listening/Support can be converted into a training path. Other training paths can also be created to address other issues. The goal is to train volunteers to become more aware of the unique challenges that people with invisible disabilities face.

Prospective Subcommunity Example (Heart Disease and Stroke Support): A training path can be created to help volunteers better understand the interrelation of heart disease, stroke, and mental health alongside preventive/protective factors.

5. Ask volunteers to include the name of the topic area in their bio so they can easily be found. Also, ask listeners to lead group discussions to increase awareness of the topic and to provide support to members in our community facing these challenges. Consider asking therapist liaisons to hold guided discussions or AMA’s.

Current Subcommunity Example (Disability Support): Listeners have indicated that they provide support for people with disabilities. There are also weekly group discussions with disabilities as a focus.

Prospective Subcommunity Example (Heart Disease and Stroke Support): Listeners start by listing heart disease and stroke support in their bio. Once the ecosystem reaches a threshold, this category is added on browse listeners. Listeners lead weekly discussions on heart disease and stroke support to increase awareness and provide group support.

6. Find the people that need the identified problem solved. Hang out with them. Get to know them. Relax. Invite them to share thoughts and ideas on how you can help address the problems they face. Regularly work with 7 Cups therapists who are subcommunity therapist liaisons to be able to enhance the support that you provide to members

Current Subcommunity Example (Disability Support): Community alerts and outreaching within the disability or general support forums/subcommunities as well as utilizing group support environments; arranging qualitative open chats or free form interviews/AMAs could help directly learn more about the challenges the problem entails. Surveys can also be helpful.

Prospective Subcommunity Example (Heart Disease and Stroke Support): A collaboration with health organizations and a call out for community participation can help identify the mental health aspect and other challenges that recovery from heart disease and stroke entails.

7. Create growth paths - or support plans - on 7 Cups to help the people you are focusing on. Ask them to take the growth paths and give you feedback on what works and what does not work. Listen closely and iterate until the growth paths are helpful.

Current Subcommunity Example (Disability Support): Growth paths based on ACT, Positive Psychology components could be used for personal coping and building community tolerance for invisible disabilities.

Prospective Subcommunity Example (Heart Disease and Stroke Support): Growth paths based on learning healthy habits and acquiring preventative/protective health behaviors that also directly impact mental health can be designed.

8. As a leader, be overly positive, believe in your bones that you and this group of volunteers and people seeking help will be able to figure it out eventually. Message this regularly to all involved.

9. When you have enough people and data, let the 7 Cups team know and we will reach out to and carefully vet experts and researchers to help you. They will have been studying your problem and other variables in your ecosystem for a long time and will be interested in it and will want to help you learn how to strengthen the ecosystem. Existing sub-communities can begin the process of transforming into a problem solving ecosystem by creating a training path and a growth path. Prospective ideas can be built on using existing subcommunity and community support via collaboration of leaders through sending out a Help Wanted post. Once a certain threshold has been met, researchers will have enough data to be helpful. New health areas will start as an independent forum. Once the growing community reaches an average of 4 posts a day per month, they can then evolve into a sub-community. They can then create a training path, growth path, reach a threshold, and invite researchers to participate.

Checklist/Summary

All of the steps are to be followed if you are attempting to establish an ecosystem from the ground up (you do not have an existing sub-community). If you do have a sub-community then it is still helpful to do most of them as it allows you to tighten your ecosystem and establish areas of growth.

• Define the problem you are trying to solve using the ecosystem. Picking the right problems is important as your ecosystem will revolve around addressing the problem.
  • Do your research
  • You might jot down a couple of problems.
• Spend time with people who are experiencing the problem you are trying to solve. (You may yourself have lived experience but you still need to connect to more people who are experiencing the problem to better understand their needs)
• Name the solution (be specific)
  • You can have multiple solutions.
• Identify the group of people who will help you solve the problem.
  • This group must be passionate about the topic and willing to support you as work on solving the problem.

Before you can move on to the next steps of the check-list, it is crucial that you show your commitment to establishing the ecosystem by successfully completing the following programs:

• Leadership Development Program
• Building Community Program

Building an ecosystem is a long term commitment, it takes grit, perseverance and a lot of practical skills. The above programs will set you up for success. ALL of your core team members (people who will join you in establishing the ecosystem/initial leaders) need to have completed the programs.

Without this requirement fulfilled, you will not be given a forum space to fulfill the upcoming steps.

Once you have completed BOTH the above mentioned programs, you can get started on the following:

• Start building a community of your own (in your forum space). (an existing sub-community should already be doing the following)
  • Create support based posts that relate to your problem statement or solution focus.
  • Create posts that drive activity (light hearted posts like welcoming area and ice-breakers) to support awareness into your identified topic.
  • Establish a reoccurring central activity (like check-ins)
  • Recruit more leaders to support your space - consider assigning/dividing the workload according to goals that address your solutions.
  • Work together as a team to ensure you meet your activity goal
• Work with your identified group of people to create a training path in the form of a custom growth/progress path. The aim of this path is to train interested users in better helping you solve the problem.
  • You can create multiple paths.
• Recruit interested people to lead discussions and support sessions around your topic.
  • Create your own discussion scripts if there are none available
  • Recruit a group of people that can cover different time zones and days
• Create growth paths that help users solve the problem you are trying to solve.
• Remain positive throughout the process. Be your team’s cheerleader.
  • This should not stop you from experimenting with different ideas and dropping the ones that may not work.

Once you have established an active ecosystem complete with your own sub-community, custom training, growth paths and active sessions running in group rooms you will submit a request to have experts/researchers help you.

Requirements to become eligible to request expert/researcher help:

• Sub-community must have 2500+ subscribers
• Sub-community must be active (measured by at least 10 forum posts made each day)
• Must have strong leadership (at least 10 total leaders of which at least 1 community mentor leader, community mentor/teen star and forum mentor/teen star/member leader should be actively present)
• Must have your own training path and at least 5 custom growth paths that support your topic
• Must be running at least 4 discussions/sessions a week in group rooms.

Keep an eye on this post! We will soon update it to include a form for your expert/research help request submissions.