Changing Rooms in the Animal House

Some 45 years ago I was in ‘Del Boy’ mode. I was sure I would become a millionaire within the year. My great scheme was breeding rabbits for food. At that time, I lived on a smallholding in Wales and had an almost empty cowshed just waiting to be used. There were plenty of companies that promised to supply a complete rabbit farming project. This included supplying cages, the rabbits, food hoppers and so on. They even promised to buy back the young rabbits born to the farm. It appeared a win-win way to make ‘loads of money’.

I didn’t pursue this promised land, and I never became a millionaire. But I did stay happy. My issue was I couldn’t see how keeping rabbits in cages was a good thing. Rabbits in hutches, yes, and I have done this, but actually rabbits belong outside. I say this even wearing my Mister McGregor hat as I have experienced many years of wild rabbits coming and destroying my garden, time and time again. Young J has a different point of view to me, claiming that the rabbits were there before my garden. In any event keeping animals in cages to breed for human consumption is an absolute ‘no-no’ for me.  

I was reminded of this last week. I read the story of the 13,000 chickens that were killed in Cheshire, after it was confirmed that the birds had contacted H5H8 avian flu. In Holland, some 200,000 birds were also culled for the same reason last week. The Netherlands are Europe’s largest exporter of chicken meat and eggs. Back in 2003, 30 million chickens and ducks were culled due to a major outbreak of avian flu. 

Additionally, last week you will have no doubt seen the dreadful pictures of the minks, kept in cages and bred for their fur, in Denmark. 17 million of them will be killed next week in an effort to minimise the risk of them re-transmitting a mutated form of Covid-19 to people. Already 12 people have been found to be positive having contracted this new form of Coronavirus from minks.  

Unlike the authorities in Wuhan, the Danish authorities don’t seem to be complacent over the high risk of animal/human transmission to their population. It is to be hoped for all our sakes that the lockdown and preventative measures the Danish government have put in place will contain this new and equally deadly strain of the Coronavirus.

Reading these animal stories last week reminded of the work of Claes Janssen, the Swedish psychologist. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he undertook research into the dynamics of change. Back in 1993, I used his work to support my MBA dissertation, and later on, as part of my PhD. My masters dissertation looked at the impact of the newly created NHS internal market, with its provider/ purchaser (now commissioner) split, on services for young people. My particular interest was forensic adolescent services. His work provided the conceptual model for my thinking and helped me frame my analysis of the data I had collected from services across the North West of England. Whilst I cannot remember the detail of my research outcomes, I do recall that the purchaser/provider split had made it more difficult to develop specialist adolescent metal health services.

Janssen developed his thinking using the metaphor of a house with four rooms – this was the so-called House of Change. The four rooms in the House of Change are: The Room of Contentment, The Room of Denial, The Room of Confusion, and the Room of Renewal. The four rooms provide a conceptual pathway of insight into what might happen to people and organisations in transition. In particular, how individuals might influence the processes of change by taking responsibility for their emotions, behaviours and decisions. Janssen suggested that in any change situation we begin in the Room of Contentment and move anti-clockwise through the other rooms as we work through the implications the change might have for us.

Each room serves a purpose in helping us recognise more clearly and respond to our emotional self, and our self in relation to others and how we see the world. Thus, moving through the rooms can allow us to better understand the two different pulls on our psyche – the need to be content and belong, and the need to get out there and find the truth. Both will impact upon our sense of reality, and how we choose to respond to change. I think Janssen’s work is very relevant today.

Covid-19 has very quickly pushed us out of the Room of Contentment. That sense we had of normality, where things generally felt good, predictable with there being little incentive to change anything. If change was required, we could plan, discuss, consider and perhaps take our time about doing so. When the pandemic came many people found themselves in the Room of Denial. We knew that our world was changing, yet for many, it appeared that they thought it didn’t apply to them. Personally, I think this was particularly and disappointingly true of some of our political leaders. The first surge and first lockdown changed that sense of denial. Sadly, for some, I think they have now retreated back into the Room of Denial.

Here is an example. Yesterday we went shopping at Tesco. It was almost like we weren’t in lockdown. No arrows on the floor, and while people were wearing masks, there was little attempt being made to social distance – a problem compounded by the fact that there was no control over the numbers of people in the store at any one time!

Possibly this move backwards is a consequence of the time we all might have spent in the Room of Confusion. Our comfortable sense of place and normality was challenged by the responses we were asked to make to dealing with the pandemic. Many of us embraced the need to develop new ways of doing things. Zoom and Teams replaced face to face meetings, working from home became the norm for many of us. However, this Room can also breed negativity. I cannot be the only person who felt that I wasn’t delivering my all by doing everything at a distance. Like others I wondered about what life ‘after Covid-19’ might bring.

Thankfully the Room of Renewal really came into its own during the early phases of the pandemic. There was lots of energy and creativity. There was a sense of ‘we are all in this together’. Hierarchical barriers were crushed; new ideas, which previously would have been thought of as unachievable, were implemented overnight. It was a challenging time. And it was also time of great loss and change.

Now we are back in the midst of surge two. And it feels more difficult this time. I suspect many of us have already ventured into the Attic of Memory and not liked what we have seen. However, we are clearly not in the Room of Contentment; like the Danish authorities we know what needs to be done to safeguard ourselves, our loved ones and each other. It may be a repositioned normality, but together we can be there for others and together we will continue to make a difference.

ps: as I was considering this week’s blog, and reading the various animal stories, I heard a commentator on TV describe the angry election-losing Trump as an ‘obese turtle on his back’ – I liked the description, I thought it suited, but of course I wouldn’t dream of using it in my blog posting…