Alhamdulillah a really nice COP Gathering with the Process Technologist fraternity at the awesome new SICC. Am super proud of our Sarawak Assets (SKA) team for being the biggest contributor to this gathering, with 4 out of 5 of the technical paper sharings coming from team SKA. Am particularly proud and inspired with Hillry, our graduate engineer who’s barely been in the team for a year, and here he is with the courage to step up to share the outcome of his GHG-reduction optimization study for his first COP. That’s no small feat - Reflecting back, my first ever COP paper was presented after 10 years working.
To me, the Community of Practice (COP) concept is one of my favorite aspects about working in PETRONAS.
COP’s are specialized groups or fraternities categorized by their professional areas of specialization (e.g. Process Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Procurement, analysts, Project Management) as a platform to share best practices, lessons learnt & breakthroughs in the industry.
The key that makes it so effective is that it’s a sharing platform “by practitioners, FOR practitioners”. We aren’t necessarily experts, neither are we objectively the “best” or even “correct” at everything. Just practicing and sharing to learn.
By simply opening up a platform for discussion, and having participants with an open willingness to share their experiences, it opens up a whole world of discovery when it came to real-life application on the ground from our own friends who go through similar challenges. Hearing from each other inspires us differently: “He managed to overcome that - and if he can do it, i can too!”; or "her technical sharing made me realize that it’s actually not as difficult as it sounds. I think I can do this!”.
All of these provide valuable, actionable insights, simultaneously expanding our network of resources of others whom we can seek support, guidance, and mentorship to collaborate, that further cement and complement the theoretical lessons we learn in an academic environment, which are usually more one-way delivery.
On top of all of that, one of the best and most valuable long-term fruits of COP is the positive networking between engineers, technical professionals, and managers across all regions.
But a platform like this will only be as effective as its practitioners to keep it alive.
And for that, Alhamdulillah, am grateful to be part of this active group COP SKG16.3 Process Technologists. Although our fraternity is comparatively small (less than 50), we were also among the most active COP’s, ranking second in the organization. Terbaik lah gais. Kudos to the awesome members for their continuous active participation, keeping the spirit burning, and playing your role to elevate each other’s morale and make it a great place to work.
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