Problem Solving

We've been co-creating a culture here together.I understand culture as the joint ideas we embrace and act out in our community.You can read our valueshere. We've also recently added an emphasis on being welcoming and encouraging.I'd like to introduce another variable today that I think is important:problem solving.

We are building the emotional support system for the Internet. This is an incredibly challenging undertaking.I tell our team regularly that building 7 Cups is like putting a puzzle together with a million pieces. To be honest, it is actually even more challenging that that. A better metaphor might be that it is a giant maze of mazes. It is pitch black. We can't really see. We are feeling our way across the walls and every so often we find an opening and we walk through it. We shout to the others nearby that we found an opening. They join us, walk down the hallway,and then we spread out again trying to find the next opening. Each opening and hallway we go down brings us closer to building the global social safety net that is 7 Cups of Tea.

My goal is to empower those all around me to be problem solvers. The more problems we solve the more progress we make. The more progress we make the more people we help. The more people we help the greater our momentum. It is a virtuous circle.

What I'd like to do in our community is to invite you all to become problem solvers along with me. This maze of mazes that we are trying to figure out can't be done by one person, or even 10, it can only be accomplished by many people working together. We've already seen this work in our community. For example, when we started the forum I had no idea it was going to be as helpful as it has become (this was an opening in the maze that we walked down). Then, I didn't realize that you all would start making suggestions on how to make the site better (that was another door we walked down). We've incorporated - and will incorporate - much of what you share with us. This lets us walk down more and more openings and get closer to our goal.

There really isn't anything mysterious about problem solving. Let me briefly outline how it works:

1.Identify the problemas specifically as you can.

2.Create the goal- this is almost always the opposite of the problem.

3.Come up with a potential solutionto the problem.

4.Try the solution.Did it work? If yes, fantastic! Keep doing it. If it didn't work, try another solution. Did that work? If no, try another. Just keep trying solutions until you find one that works.

Here is an example from our recent past:

1.Problem: New Listeners do not feel welcome.

2.Goal:New Listeners feel welcome.

3.Potential Solutions:
-send genuine welcoming messages to new listeners
-welcome new listeners in the chat room
-welcome new listeners on the forum

4.Did it work?Yes, it is working, but we can do more here. We are adding new solutions to get better at this. We'll keep doing what works, but we'll also add more things to make it better.

I wasn't even aware that some new listeners were not feeling welcome before. This was really surprising to me, especially because we are such a warm community. It isn't that any of us were being purposefullyun-welcoming. We had just assumed that it was happening. Then, when we realized we were not, we took deliberate steps to be more welcoming, b/c that is the type of community we are; we are a welcoming community! With problem solving it really helps if you can clearly outline the problem and then outline specific ways you are going to try to solve the problem.

Let me share another a problem we haven't yet solved:

1.Problem:There are lots of people struggling around us. 30-40% of the people that we know struggle and don't really want anyone to know they are struggling. They need help. We, at 7 cups, can give them the help they need.

2.Goal:The 30-40% of people that are quietly struggling around us learn about 7 cupsand use the servicetofeel better.

3.Solution: We haven't really figured out a good solution to this quite yet. Let's work together to problem solve this.

4. After we get our potential solutions together. Let's test them and see if they work. We can probably come up with 4-5 things that really work well. We can then start doing those things deliberately to help more people.

You can see from the above outline and example that problem solving is fairly easy to implement, especially if we are working together. One last point: fear of failure.

>Failure- often times we are afraid to try things because we are afraid of failure. We somehow believe that successful people just come up with great ideas and then drop them into existence. This NEVER happens. Things that work work because someone has failed about a thousand times in figuring out how to make them work. We are no different. We are going to fail a lot. That is good! Failure is good, b/c it means we are trying and making progress. There is a famous Thomas Edison quote about not failing a 100x, but, rather, learning 100xhow to not do it. We need to have this same mindset.I fail all the time.I've failed or made 100's of mistakes with 7 cups alone. I keep failing and making mistakes. This is good though, because this is how I learn. Please hear me that I welcome failure, b/c that is going to be how we learn.

>>No permission needed- We want you all to feel free to experiment and problem solve as outlined above. If you see a problem, then post it here in this thread and share how you are going to try to solve it.

In closing, I'd like us to officially incorporate problem solving into our culture. We are already doing it - which is the main reason why we have grown so much - but we can do it in a more deliberate manner. Thank you to all of you for helping us walk through this maze. We are doing it by solving one problem at a time. Onward and upward!