Kingdom at Work
Project
Online Handbook
Using the Handbook
Individually
You can use the Handbook individually as a guide to help you reflect on your work community and identify what's good, bad and indifferent about it compared with the vision of community presented by the Handbook. Following the six-step process will help stimulate ideas and actions you can take to encourage and reinforce positive behaviours that will enable your community to embody more of the 5Ls.
The process set out in the Handbook is repeatable and can be used multiple times and in different ways to drive the transformation of your work community. Having started by using it on your own, you might find there are others you can team-up with, or vice versa.
How often you go through the process is up to you. Initially, you might look to use the it every 3 or 6 months, or when prompted by a change in your work situation. As you become more familiar with the process, it is hoped that it will become embedded in your thought processes and a natural part of your day-to-day approach to your work.
Alternatively, you might find it helpful to work through the Handbook together with one or more like-minded people, e.g. a colleague, supporter or mentor, who are sympathetic to the community vision set out in the Handbook and willing to partner with you to deliver changes to your work community.
Sharing with others will be more of a challenge to begin with because of the need to build understanding and trust but the initial investment of time and energy can be worth it in terms of the broader perspective, added ideas and greater impact a joint approach can offer.
You can adopt this approach for a particular change, a defined time, or on an ongoing basis. There are no set rules on how frequently you go through the process. If you're working with others, it will need to be a joint decision.
With Others
In a Study Group
Another way you can use the Handbook is a study group resource to enable a number of people, who share an interest in exploring the idea of building stronger communities at work, to come together for a defined period to think about what it means for them in their situation and how they might go about it.
Members of the study group don't have to belong to the same work community. It can be more enriching if they come from a variety of backgrounds. The aim is to provide a safe environment in which they can reflect on the work they do and their work communities, share their individual experiences, discuss areas that they would like to see transformed and think about how they might make a difference where they are.
With some preparatory work to allow participants to familiarise themselves with the concept of community expressed in the 5Ls, the Handbook's six-step process and accompanying worksheets provide a framework and resources to run a six-week study group course in a church or other community setting.