{"id":194,"date":"2025-01-22T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T10:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/?p=194"},"modified":"2025-02-03T14:56:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T14:56:17","slug":"warm-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/2025\/01\/22\/warm-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Warm Communities?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have an air source heat pump. We were faced with the need to change from our oil system a little under a year ago when the oil tank was condemned. We needed to choose whether we were going to stick with the current system or move to a new one.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The thing is that air source heat pumps are rather contentious. There are headlines in the press about them. When you talk to others down the pub or in a caf\u00e9 [or wherever else you meet for social interaction] you get lots of opinions and lots of questions. Those opinions may be variably founded, and the questions always seem to come with the underlying message that moving away from whatever everyone else is doing is either foolish or plain wrong.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Having done my research, made my decision and now heat my home with a heat pump, though, I can say that there were a lot of myths out there. Stories that were unhelpful.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And having made the change, I can now bore about heat pumps\u2026 I have a new story to tell\u2026 if you are interested. But this is not meant to be a blog about how I heat my home. It is a blog about development, growth and change: personal and collective.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as we step away from the normal way of doing things, we become an outlier. We are disrupting the norms of life and so a threat to the routines that have served our community well. And so, to maintain the status quo and to protect us, the community seems to wrap us in stories and questions that are unconsciously designed so that we remain in the fold.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The community can also be rather brutal in exposing people who made a \u201cmistake\u201d. Just look at the press headlines.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But please note the underlying drive is a good one, though. It is to protect, to keep people together in a safe place.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem with this is that a community that does not change is at risk of being taken over by events, and of rejecting the new, novel, and interesting that can enrich it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And as W. Edwards Deming said, \u201cIt is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what are the attitudes that need to be present amongst the people in a community if it is to change, thrive, or simply survive? From my heat pump experience, I would like to suggest these as a starting point.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A humble curiosity. I would have found it so much easier to make my decision if I felt that my family and friends wanted to explore my ideas without judgement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A willingness to embrace the unconventional even if it did not seem to immediately fit. This attitude should also extend to people who are different from us, as much as heating systems.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An excitement about trying new things. This is stretching it a bit with heat pumps, they have been around for a long time. Maybe I should re-write this as <\/span>an excitement about trying new to me things<\/span><\/i>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And with this, a willingness to celebrate those that try, that push the boundaries, even if they don\u2019t always succeed. After all, honest failure can teach us a lot. There should be no shame in it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If these seem novel to you, why not try them out next time you end up in conversation with someone who has an idea. See where it takes you both.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Edward Webster<\/a>, Workforce Development<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have an air source heat pump. We were faced with the need to change from our oil system a little under a year ago when the oil tank was condemned. We needed to choose whether we were going to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1725,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-webster"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1725"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}