RANA ESSAY

RANA was born from the need of individuals and organization to think and manage better by thinking about what and how they are going to behave, before they act. With Canadian roots in intervention, mediation and process consultation, RANA has spread its concepts and practices across Canada and abroad.

Drawing from the best thinkers across the world, RANA Research and Development has organized the various approaches people might use to improve both their logical and creative skills. If it's time to design a new product, there's a RANA process to apply. If a problem occurs, a choice of RANA processes are available. If business planning is needed, a set of RANA methodologies will aptly perform.

Not only has RANA organized the over 150 or so different approaches that people and organizations can use to be more effective, it has also identified the skills which can make key people facilitators of those processes. Change agents now have both a Body of Knowledge as well as a Body of Skills that they can draw upon as resources for their important work.

Nor do these sets of knowledge and skills remain static: they are ever changing, expanding and developing in response to new needs. For example, most people working in organizations understand the limitations of the hierarchical/functional structure, that is, the Power-Down Structure. RANA processes can help the organization move from the Power-Down to the Power-Up Structure, where self-directed groups of people work with common values and goals to achieve results hitherto thought extraordinary.

RANA itself is a matrix organization of like-minded people who share beliefs about thinking, clients, participation and involvement of people as wells as harmonizing communities. RANA practitioners are especially interested and involved in conflict resolution where female-male teams of facilitators-mediators help those in conflict to resolve their differences and heal the rift caused by mutual targeting.

RANA facilitates and mediates, but also trains: it is a RANA belief that the best service you can provide to your client is to leave the skills behind. Part of every RANA intervention is ensuring continuity of learning in the client group.

RANA's practitioners have come by their reputation the hard way. The new consultant who is already a mature practitioner in the field of personal and organization development, spends up to two years learning RANA skills and processes so that s/he can model the behaviours necessary for success. RANA people are as much the exemplars as they are consultants, interveners and trainers. And, we are in the continuous improvement business.

There is a bright future for RANA, because there is so much for us to do. Slipping academic standards are turning out entire generations who don't know how to think. The employers of this generation turn to RANA to provide the frameworks and methodologies aimed at equipping workers and manager to do their jobs well. This is the vocation of the RANA professional: to provide thinking and behaviour skills to those who need it.