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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please highlight the 3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
1) High Expectations & High Warmth- This one is important to me because to be able to provide a safe and comfortable place for one to openly talk, you have to set high expectations to ensure that we are both on the same page but also to have high warmth as this can help maintain a feeling of safety and secureness.
2) Your Work Matters- Sometimes we forget that what we do here matters and is amazing, that is why this one is important. We get wrapped up wondering if what we are doing is “good enough” and sometimes we do tend to forget what our main goal here is and we end up feeling like we aren't going a good job.
3) Strengths-Based- This one is important to me because we all need to learn that we do have strengths, whether being great at empathy or great at being supportive etc. We have our strengths that make us all unique from each other, something that I might be good at doesn't mean everyone is good at. We all learn from each other and from our own strengths to improve.
@GlenM
I learned trust, How to trust people
I learned care, everyone cars about eachother and
I learned Accountability, we need to be accountable for eachother and ourselves
Your work matters:- this is important as it feels me that the work I am doing in the 7 cups creates a difference for a better and may help someone by a lot.
Trust:- if course this one has to be the most important one as a member cannot truly share their feelings with us if they don't trust us and we should all help in making a trustworthy environment here at 7 cups and I'll help us rwac our goal to help people
Accountability:- this is also really important as if we become responsible, deadline meeting, task completing person on 7 cups it'll help the community gore and function when better and will be able ti provide help to people
1. My work here is important.
2) All the listeners and mentors on 7cups are trained to support me and offer a helping hand
3) Failure is expected
@GlenM
I felt this statement “7cups is high expectations and high warmth” and the way the explanation given why it need to be high expectation and high warmth.
It was learning because it both important at organization level and personal level.
Just keeping expectation and working toward it is draining but if we get support and warmth we feel always charged and motivate to fulfil the expectation.
Strength Based concept: Working on strength instead of working on weak point.
“We expect failure” – as long we are trying and focused it is ok to fail. It make facing failure in positive way and encourage to keep trying.
@GlenM
3 things I've learned here are
1. It's okay to ask for help, even the best leaders need it sometimes
2. I'm doing something great and I'm changing the community
3. Responsibility, we're responsible for our time and our decisions!
@GlenM
The 3 most important things I learned from the guide are the following:
1. High Expectations and High Warmth: I felt this was a very significant feature of the LDP program offered at 7 Cups because I strongly agree that supporting other people is a challenging process and thus have high expectations on potential leaders to fulfill their duties and provide the best support as possible. I loved the idea of being high in expectations but also in warmth as we all need positive support and encouragement from each other to overcome the challenges we may face during the development program.
2. Strengths-Based: As everyone has different strengths just like they have different weaknesses, we need to maximize our strengths and use them as a tool to provide support for others. This is not only beneficial to the one who receives the support, but also to the one who is providing the support because maximizing our strengths makes us feel more confident, fulfilling, and thus more effective.
3. Take Care of Yourself: Leaders must be being both physically and psychologically healthy to provide any kind of support to people who need them. Therefore, this is a duty that leaders must do not only for themselves but also for the ones they may support. It is significant to think of the experience at 7 Cups as a long-term experience in which I can participate for a long time with a sustainable and healthy body and mind.
@GlenM
3 most important things you learned from our guide and why they are important to you.
1. 7cups expect failure... It' is importsnt to me because sometimes i'm scared of failure that i don't even try... So it'good that 7cups allow it! I think this is just as important in life embrace mistakes as it is to enjoy success.
2. Take care of myself: sometimes i forget this simple thing and do things our of sense of duty, and dont enjoy, so it is a good reminder!
3. "Not everyone is a good match" is a good guide. If there is a case or listener who needs help that I feel not suitable, I will allow myself to pass on members to others listeners who might be a better match.
@Bu123
You point out some really good points there! I definitely suffer from some too that I don't try out new things because I'm afraid of failures. But it's great to know 7 Cups expect failure and want to work with us through them!
@GlenM
1. That 7cups invests in us for our own good.
2. 7cups helps me to align my interests and strengths to solve core problems.
3. That it is not a good idea to think about another person’s problems the majority of the time.
Things I learned:
Trust- Fostering trust building behaviors is highly important as it helps each one of us personally grow and it guides 7Cups on the right path to achieving its aims.
Strengths-Based- In my opinion, this is one of the most important things. When we do work that falls into our strengths, we tend to perform better and this increases productivity. On the other hand, trying to work in areas we are weak in only decreases the quality of our work.
Take Care of Yourself- This is pretty obvious. We can't pour from an empty cup so it's important for us to take breaks ,engage in activities we enjoy, and ask for help when we need. This will help us to work better because our own health matters too!