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...
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3 things I have learnt here in guide is
1) Trust is the basic foundation of working of 7cups. It is very important to me as I value trust very much and I try my best to always have an open and trusting relationship with people around me.
2) Our work is important. This is important as I always suffer from the feeling that I am not doing anything and I am not able to help others.
3) Try our best. Trying our best helps us succeed and make this world a better place.
@wonderfulKermitKaTy Seems, like trust is making people to be more compassionate with each other and more genuine. Like that would make care and support is more effective and make people be kinder, how do you think?
Your Work Matters - because if I feel my work is important, I stay highly-motivated, more able to overcome stress, to solve problems and because feeling importance increases overall efficiency of work.
High Expectations & High Warmth - because working for high expectations is long-term trying which helps to build a better system which is able to evolve over time and succeed. High warmth on other hand provides it won't be a failure in a long term, that it would keep me motivated and willing to progress.
Solving Problems that Matter - because it feels like a main direction of overall trying. Problems themselves are able to give advantages in the sense means I'd learn the best from them and be better next time. Choosing the main of them to solve makes my moving through life progress better. Staying focused makes problem solving more effective.
We work by Trusting eachother and holding one another accountable!
I enjoy the usage of the self and improvement in correlation to both the community we help and the community that helps us! Promoting the culture of self augmentation within the community
The importance of self care truly aids your journey!
Thank you for the discussion <3
@GlenM
The three most important things I learned from the guide are: that failure is not a dreaded possibility, but an accepted eventuality; we really save lives every day when we talk to members; that 7 cups provides guidance and help for listeners to get to the point in their listener careers where they meet the high expectations set.
The guide about 7cups culture taught me that accountability, trust and collaboration are the keys to a healthy community. I also learned about the milestones that 7cups reached! Last but not least, I learned that 7cups is available in 192 countries, which is a lot of countries!
@competentParadise6344
I agree!! Never thought we are over 192 countries and counting!
@GlenM
It's very important to understand the culture, one is in and wants to follow and promote.
Somethings that I like about 7 cups culture and guide are -:
● I like that as a community we thrive on high level of Trust amongst one another ,and it's what keeps us grounded and Accountable for our actions.
● I also like that the culture promotes Self- efficacy , meaning the belief one may have in themselves and how the 7 cups community and the work we do here ,helps us be the better version of ourselves, giving us ample opportunities to try new things and work our way through, building our confidence and integrity .
● I absolutely love the fact that the guide mentions ,our work is important and we do make a difference. Also the highlight on importance of self care . I think, this ever growing and supportive culture is very integral to everyone's personal development and growth .
Thankyou for the discussion♥️
@Sunisshiningandsoareyou
I completely agree! We need to have trust in order for us to be able to be good at what we do. The culture here really does enforce us to be better than we were yesterday, and our work is so important. Glad you’re on here, Sun!
Hey @greatfulSmiles6152 , that's a great summary of my response hehe, thanks alot for your reply ! Appreciate you here as well ❤
Hey @greatfulSmiles6152 , that's a great summary of my response hehe, thanks alot for your reply ! Appreciate you here as well ❤
@GlenM
Please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
1. I learnt that my work matters, this is important because it makes me remember that not everyone is here doing this for other people and themselves, I may be changing someone's view on people and on themselves by just simply being there for them.
2. I learnt that it's okay to make a mistake and not do so well one day, it gives me the opportunity to bounce back and improve on whatever it was.
3. This community is built upon high warmth and high expectations, this is important because it's best that we work to our best standard when offering support to people having their bad days.
Caring for People with Fewer Financial Resources: I’ve a friend of mine who’s living in a country having civil war and she’s dealing with negative emotions. Trust: Trust means you’re loving yourself and the world around you in an equal way, and when it’s absent then there’s no harmony in the world. We Expect Failure: No one in the world is perfect, even wise people like me can even deal with mental health issues, no one is immune from mistakes.
@Looj
Hey just want to say I hope your friend is getting better... Hopefully 7 Cups can be a good tool to help her along the way!
@GlenM
1. High expectation & warmth:
The community has high expectations from us but, provides us supportive, positive, caring, and warm environment at the same time.
- The community has high expectations from us:
If the expectations are low we won't be able to reach our true potential which will lead to a lack of effort that will result in poor results.
Have you heard about the Pygmalion effect?
- The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is a psychological phenomenon wherein high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area.
- The effect is named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved, or alternately, after the psychologist Robert Rosenthal.
- Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, in their book, applied the idea to teachers' expectations of their students affecting the students' performance, a view that has been undermined partially by subsequent research.
- High warmth
With having high expectations the community also provides us with a caring, supportive, positive, and warm environment.
If there is a lack of warmth, we might not be able to enjoy our work and might feel burn out which will lead to poor results.
2. Friendliness and Conscientiousness:
Friendliness can make us seem trustworthy which is our superpower. Similarly, conscientiousness is valued as it also increases trust. A conscientious person is trustworthy, hardworking, works smart, and gets the job done which indicates success.
3. Failure is expected:
The community works on the people who are ready to learn, welcomes improvement, and makes progress even if the person fails. Though failing due to distraction or you are not trying to solve the problem is not acceptable.
@GlenM
The three things that were eye-catching in my case are as follows
1. Friendliness and conscientiousness - I think this trait is a must to have in order to proceed with a supportive and warm environment. Consciousness tells us to agree with others and build trust such that we can believe the other person will do the work in a smart way. Undoubtedly these are core values and superpowers in our community.
2. Accountability - To be held accountable for the work we do, to check the work that has been done by our fellow community members, to cling and complete our work efficiently and independently, and meet deadlines as a whole would obviously help a person build trust It also gives a lot of value to time management which is integral for any leader.
3.Takee care of ourselves - I find this point intriguing because unless we take care of ourselves, we can't expect to take care of others by giving our 100%. Any form of physical or mental fatigue hinders our progress and therefore, this point is important and should be considered.
@GlenM The 3 things that the guide taught me about our culture is Your Work Matters - this work is incredibly important to the community and we can tend to forget what we're doing is amazing, even if we're on self-care or only taking 1 chat a day, we're doing great things! Second thing is Caring for People with Fewer Financial Resources - this is important to me as when I joined the site I was Googling "Free Therapy" for myself but found this incredible community instead, wanted to help others in need. Lastly, High Expectations & High Warmth - the importance of welcoming everyone and creating a safe space with rules and guidelines are important to keep a structured community.
