The Story and Approach Behind ALNA

Organisational diagnosis and process improvement for care, rehabilitation and social care organisations.

ALNA is in development. We start with a focused process diagnosis; subsequent implementation, measurement and learning cycles will be planned and agreed separately.

Mental health, social care, rehabilitation, community, and other human-service organisations hold deep professional knowledge, useful data, and committed people. In the middle of daily workload, it can still be difficult to understand what is disrupting a service pathway or which action would help.

ALNA connects information that already exists in the organisation with professional knowledge from the field to examine what may be affecting service delivery and develop options that fit the organisation. Implementation support and ongoing measurement are follow-on services in development and require a separate agreement.

Starting from frontline work

I'm Shani Shimshian, a social worker and therapist. Working inside care and human service systems exposed me to the gap between the large amount of information an organisation already holds and its ability to turn that information into shared understanding and focused action.

Frontline staff, middle managers, and senior leaders often see different parts of the same process. ALNA was built to connect these perspectives with operational data and the service pathway, then examine what may explain a breakdown before the organisation decides what to do.

Between professional knowledge and technology

ALNA connects behavioral-systems thinking, organisational information, and technology. The technology helps organize information, track evidence and possible explanations, and lay out the reasoning behind each recommendation.

As part of the process, ALNA and the analyst examine the findings and action options together. The decision stays with the organisation and the professionals who know the service and the people it is meant to serve.

From understanding to organisational learning

The diagnostic is a starting point. After an action is chosen, we check whether it was implemented, what changed, and what can be learned. This keeps the thread connecting the breakdown that was identified, the explanation that was tested, the action that was chosen, and the outcome that was observed.

The larger goal is to help an organisation improve its process in a way that supports the person's progress. What progress looks like differs from one organisation to the next: continuity of care, a return to functioning, entry into employment, independence, stability, or expanded opportunity.