Loss Prevention Asia (LPA) Conference, 21-22 August 2023, Kuala Lumpur Convention Center

Forum, Day 2: "Safety in Environment, Social & Governance (ESG)" - A conversation with Samuel Chadwick (DNV), Professor Ronald Wiley (Northeastern University USA), Suripno S (Pertamina) & Hasnor Hassaruddin (PETRONAS)

🏹🎯 Teaching your Children Archery

 

Jom bawak anak2 memanah!

Although he only recently started, it’s interesting seeing how Muawiyah develops his archery skills over the weeks with Coach Fera.

It’s a great platform for children to learn focus, precision in technique, hand-eye coordination, and even emotional self-control. In recent classes, Coach also indirectly teaches Muawiyah on the discipline of patience and restraint: relax, and don’t force the bow. Forcing only distorts accuracy, and the key to landing good shots is to remain calm. 

Being five years old, his body size limits his draw length so he can’t shoot more than 8 metres for now; so now it’s about focusing on the foundations and basics of the techniques. Looking forward to see him grow in his over the years!

Learning Archery is highly encouraged in Islam. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ once passed by some people of the tribe of Bani Aslam who were practicing archery. The Prophet ﷺ said, 

ارْمُوا بَنِي إِسْمَاعِيلَ، فَإِنَّ أَبَاكُمْ كَانَ رَامِيًا. ارْمُوا فَأَنَا مَعَكُمْ كُلِّكُمْ

"O Children of Ismail! Practice archery, as your father Ismail was a great archer.” He further added, “shoot, and I am with all of you!”

(Al-Bukhari)

The Prophet ﷺ said,

ارْمُوا وَارْكَبُوا وَلأَنْ تَرْمُوا أَحَبُّ إِلَىَّ مِنْ أَنْ تَرْكَبُوا كُلُّ مَا يَلْهُو بِهِ الرَّجُلُ الْمُسْلِمُ بَاطِلٌ إِلاَّ رَمْيَهُ بِقَوْسِهِ وَتَأْدِيبَهُ فَرَسَهُ وَمُلاَعَبَتَهُ أَهْلَهُ فَإِنَّهُنَّ مِنَ الْحَقِّ

Practice archery and practice riding. That you should practice archery is more beloved to me than that you should ride. 

All forms of entertainment that the Muslim man engages in are considered wasteful play, except for his shooting of his bow, his training of his horse, and him playing with his family, for they are from Truth.” (At-Tirmidzi #1637)

He ﷺ also said, 

الْمُؤْمِنُ الْقَوِيُّ خَيْرٌ وَأَحَبُّ إِلَى اللَّهِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِ الضَّعِيفِ

“The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer” (Muslim)

He emphaszied, repeating three times: 

أَلاَ إِنَّ الْقُوَّةَ الرَّمْىُ

“Verily! Strength is in archery!” (Muslim)

Forum: "Sustainable Living For A Safer Work Environment" - HSE x PSM Carnival, SKA Auditorium 15th August 2023

 

Alhamdulillah, Huge thanks to the SKA HSE x PSM committee for offering me an opportunity to contribute to the event. It was an honor to play a part in facilitating such an interesting topic with these panelists to gain valuable insights and learnings from them. 

Six highlights and takeaway Points: 

1. "Sustainability" is about fulfilling our needs without jeopardizing or harming future generations. Laying the foundations for our future generations to flourish, thrive & prosper after us.

Think the big picture - we should be driven for a cause much bigger than ourselves!

2. When it comes to safety, put aside ranks and designations: we are equals and need to care for each other as human beings who want to go home safely. And to achieve that, you will always need the human touch on the ground. OIM Effendie shared that the key is to remove "power distance", to build relationship psychological safety.

OIM shared inspiring examples of how he would invite contractors from workboats and vessels to come and host them at the platform, provide hospitality as "tuan rumah", with some of them feeling grateful and honored, because "it's their first time on a platform". Little touches of kindness go a long way. 

3. Despite elaborate programs on competency upskilling, education, and raising awareness, when we look at Incident lessons learnt and HSE alerts, there's a sense of Deja Vu: same takeaway points, same lessons learnt. 

The problem isn't the quality of education; it's the attitude towards the knowledge. Knowledge will only be useful if you step up to ACT on it consistently. 

4. Especially when it comes to safety, Achievement is a double-edged sword: It can be a powerful motivating driver, yet at the same time, once we have attained it, there's a danger of being complacent and letting our guards down -  the "we made it" syndrome. 

Our panelist shared that a leader admitted in hindsight, that once they were given huge awards for stellar performance, it all went downhill from there because they started becoming too lax, and their performance slipped. 

5. "It always starts with ME, and it must come from my heart". If I cannot convince myself on the importance of sustainability, safety, and if I'm not passionate about saving lives, then how can I expect to convey that to others? 

6. At the heart of it, it's about love and care for our colleagues. We all love to come home safely. We all love to have good health & positive well-being. Therefore, if we truly uphold our religious values - to Love for others what we love for ourselves - then we will extend the same care towards those around us ❤️

Two hadiths come to mind. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said,

تَرَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِي تَرَاحُمِهِمْ وَتَوَادِّهِمْ وَتَعَاطُفِهِمْ كَمَثَلِ الْجَسَدِ إِذَا اشْتَكَى عُضْوًا تَدَاعَى لَهُ سَائِرُ جَسَدِهِ بِالسَّهَرِ وَالْحُمَّى

"You see the believers, in being merciful among themselve, loving each other and being kind amongst themselves, resembling that of one unified body: If any part of the body falls ill, then the whole body shares the sleeplessness & fever together."

(Al-Bukhari)

لَا يُؤْمِنُ أَحَدُكُمْ حَتَّى يُحِبَّ لِأَخِيهِ مَا يُحِبُّ لِنَفْسِهِ

"None of you has complete faith, until he loves for his brother that which he loves for himself" (Al-Bukhari, Muslim)

#hse #safety #sustainability #forum #changeforthebetter 

💡 SKG16.3 Process Technologists Community of Practice (COP) #2 - 10 August 2023 @ Sabah International Convention Centre, Kota Kinabalu Sabah

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. 

🧠Smart people = Lousy Negotiators? 🤔

 

Interesting: Smart people don’t make good listeners, hence lousy negotiators

In his book “Never Split the Difference”, author Chris Voss says,

“Really smart people often have trouble being negotiators”.

Wait, what? 😱
Why?

Because they think “they’re so smart they think they don’t have anything to discover. Too often people find it easier just to stick with what they believe. Using what they’ve heard or their own biases, they often make assumptions about others even before meeting them. They even ignore their own perceptions to make them conform to foregone conclusions. These assumptions muck up our perceptual windows onto the world, showing us an unchanging—often flawed—version of the situation.” (End Quote)

The point the author is making here is: For geniuses, their smartness becomes a handicap from becoming good listeners: and therefore becomes a barrier from becoming effective negotiators.

Aha, so the problem here isn’t intelligence. The problem here is ARROGANCE: when our intelligence gets to your head that we consider ourself superior than others, to the point that other opinions or perspectives are just discarded or ignored.

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “a person with an atom’s weight of arrogance will not enter Paradise! Arrogance is to reject the truth, and to look down upon other people” (Muslim)

It’s one thing to be smart. It’s another thing to be Mr. Smartypants.

So, what DO great negotiators do?

“Great negotiators are able to question the assumptions that the rest of the involved players accept on faith or in arrogance, and thus remain more emotionally open to all possibilities, and more intellectually agile to a fluid situation.”

It’s possible be very smart, AND simultaneously have the humility to listen with an open heart and mind.

One of the most inspiring examples to me is the tabi’ee Muslim scholar, Ataa bin Abi Rabah:

“A young man came to me to inform me something (of knowledge), therefore I kept silent and listened, being fully attentive, as if I have never heard of it before, even though I have actually known about that matter before this man was even born!” (Siyar A’lam An-Nubula 5/86)

Interesting, when you put things in perspective: the key to becoming an effective listener - and by extension, a great negotiator - is humility.

Even more interesting when we consider that this is also the primary leadership characteristic of what Jim Collins defines as “Level 5 leadership” in his book, Good to Great.

Is Humility some kind of secret superpower?

I believe so. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

وَمَا تَوَاضَعَ أَحَدٌ لِلَّهِ إِلاَّ رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ

“No one humbles himself for the sake of Allah, except that Allah raises his status” (Muslim)

🍛 “Kau tak tahu berkat tu kat mana..” - Keberkatan dalam teguran ikhlas

Pernahkah anda terima teguran atau nasihat yang pendek dan ringkas - Tapi somehow, nasihat tu lekat dengan kita? Dia punya berkat tu, kekal lain macam.

Satu teguran yang masih segar dalam ingatan saya, berlaku lebih daripada 15 tahun yang lalu, sewaktu makan malam bersama di satu kedai di SS2 Petaling Jaya. 

Yang berikut salah satu kisah peribadi yang saya sendiri alami. 

Waktu tu saya ingat, saya makan sangat bersepah. Dah habis makan, lebihan makan atas pinggan. Ada nasi, serpihan tauge merata atas pinggan.

Sahabat saya menegur. “Bro, nak tegur sikit boleh?”

Ok. Masa tu, saya terfikir: Nasihat apa tu? Nak cakap nasik akan menangis hari kiamat? Macam dah biasa dengar. Takpe, kita dengar dulu. 

“Baik, silakan bro”

Dia kata, “makanan ni, elok kita habis kan, bagi licin. Sebab Nabi ﷺ kata, kita tak tahu berkat tu kat mana.”

Wow. first time saya dengar nasihat & dapat tahu tentang konsep ni: Kita tak tahu di mana berkat dalam makanan kita. Bila semak semula, jumpa riwayat asal dalam Sahih Muslim. Anas meriwayatkan:

أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ كَانَ إِذَا أَكَلَ طَعَامًا لَعِقَ أَصَابِعَهُ الثَّلَاثَ، قَالَ: وَقَالَ: إِذَا سَقَطَتْ لُقْمَةُ أَحَدِكُمْ فَلْيُمِطْ عَنْهَا الْأَذَى وَلْيَأْكُلْهَا، وَلَا يَدَعْهَا لِلشَّيْطَانِ، وَأَمَرَنَا أَنْ نَسْلُتَ الْقَصْعَةَ، قَالَ: فَإِنَّكُمْ لَا تَدْرُونَ فِي أَيِّ طَعَامِكُمُ الْبَرَكَةُ

Rasulullah ﷺ apabila selesai makan, Baginda akan menjilat ketiga jarinya sambil bersabda: “Apabila suapan salah seorang daripada kalian terjatuh, hendaklah dia bersihkan kotoran (atau habuk) padanya dan kemudian memakannya. Jangan biarkan makanan itu untuk syaitan (dimakannya)”. 

Juga, Baginda berpesan kepada kami agar membersihkan sisa makanan yang berada di atas pinggan (habiskan). Baginda bersabda, “kerana sesungguhnya kalian tidak tahu pada bahagian mana daripada makanan kamu yang mengandungi keberkatan." (Riwayat Muslim, #2034)

Bagi saya, hadith ni membawa "paradigm shift", mengubah perspektik kita dalam cara kita approach makanan: Kalau anda tidak cermat dalam menghabiskan makanan, maka sebenarnya anda menzalimi diri sendiri dengan melucutkan diri daripada keberkatan Allah. You are oppressing yourself by depriving yourself of Allah's barakah!

Semenjak hari tersebut, saya tanamkan dalam diri satu komitmen peribadi: pastikan setiap kali saya makan, pinggan kena licin. Clean sheet. Kalau pegi buffet, ambik makanan yang nak makan sahaja, pastikan habis semua. Kalau "tak best"? Ha, siapa suruh amek banyak2. 

Kalau tengok makanan berlebihan kat ofis, memang rasa geram. Kalau boleh nak tapau. Mentang2 pakai bajet kompeni, sukahati je order lebih2 and buang. Ugh. Berkat tu oii. 

Skarang dah ada anak, masih teruskan komitmen mengamalkan sunnah ini. Walaupun makin mencabar, biasa lah anak2 ni, mood & citarasa diorg ni susah nak bajet. 

Sedikit demi sedikit, saya mulai sedar, bila kita konsisten dalam usaha meraij keberkatan dari Allah, tabiat ini makin lama menjadikan saya lebih husnu dzon - berbaik sangka - dengan Allah. Barangkali, banyak nikmat dalam kehidupan saya yang datang disebabkan keberkatan yang dikurniakan bila kita prihatin cermat menghabiskan makanan. Hidup dengan optimis, syukur.

Walaupun tabiat ini menjadi antara penyumbang utama kepada berat badan saya (Note to self: Umar pernah sound, perut boroi tidak semestinya tanda keberkatan 😝), dan walaupun ahli keluarga saya selalu perli saya ni macam “DBKL” - time macam ni, kita kena ketepikan ego. Janji Tuhan itu pasti, dan keberkatan Allah itu itu amatlah berharga. Berbaloi kena perli. Sabo je la.

Berbalik kepada kisah sahabat saya ni tadi. Walaupun nasihat beliau sangat ringkas, tapi akibat keikhlasan beliau menegur saya dengan penuh hormat dan hikmah, saya mengamalkan sunnah setiap kali makan, dah lebih daripada 15 tahun (and counting). Masha Allah. 

Seperti kata-kata Nabi ﷺ: “Barangsiapa yang memulakan suatu perbuatan dalam Islam suatu sunnah yang baik, lalu diamalkan orang selepasnya, dituliskan bagi pemulanya pahala orang yang beramal denganya, dan tidak akan berkurang daripada pahala mereka suatu pun.” (Muslim)

Jarang dapat berjumpa sahabat yang bagi nasihat macam ni. Nikmat yang besar walhamdulillah.

Peristiwa ini menjadi pengajaran peribadi yang penting dalam meraih keberkatan: bukan sahaja dalam aspek pemakanan, tetapi dalam keberkatan bila menasihati dengan ikhlas. 

Persoalan yang saya selalu audit diri saya - dan saya rasa patut kita semua tepuk dada, tanya selera - adakah KITA sendiri menjadi sahabat yang baik kepada sahabat kita? 

Kadang2, kita yang mengelat menasihati sahabat2 kita. Takut diorg tak suka, takut diorg sentap and left group lari. Kita hanya nak “play it safe”, just buat diorg hepi hepi, tapi biar mereka hanyut dan terus menerus buat kesalahan. 

Kalaulah kita ikhlas menasihati sahabat, kadangkala ungkapan ringkas, teguran yang baik, dengan izin Allah ada potensi besar untuk mengubah hidup mereka. Tak perlu pun ceramah panjang2 atau ijazah berjela-jela. Hanya perlu ikhlas dalam da’wah & dalam amar ma’ruf dan nahi munkar. Kemudian, serahkan kepada Allah. Let the barakah flow. Dia yang akan tambah keberkatan, mengikut Hikmah-Nya dan Fadhl-Nya. 

Semoga Allah jadikan kita istiqamah dalam menasihati ahli keluarga dan sahabat2 kita.

What is your “wake”? What effect do you have upon others? - Recognizing value and impact of the morale effect.

 

One of our senior engineers recently resigned. It was a big loss to the organization, having lost someone very technically competent, experienced and possessing very effective people skills, one whom we had high hopes of becoming our future leader.

But what I found inspiring about her was the intangible value and impact she carried with her. It wasn’t only her technical capability, but she had another rare, amazing quality: She was able to inspire others around her.

Everyone who has had the experience of working with her, all of them always report an overwhelmingly positive working experience. From the juniors who found her as a very patient and encouraging teacher, to her peers who always enjoyed her company and cheerful vibe, to the other fellow seniors who consistently enjoy technical discussions with her very effective curious questions that made us think. All the while always maintaining a pleasant demeanor, and not being condescending. Her questions and comments always made us think. 

Looking back, one could say that her presence multiplied the creative and intellectual capacity of those around her.

During her farewell, one of our seniors said that at one point in the early years of his career, he contemplated resigning from the organization because of some negative experiences. But after he had the privilege to work under her as his senior, he had such a great experience that he changed his mind and decided to stay. That was 4 years ago. Basically, he’s still with us today, because of her. If you want to reframe her “value”, you could say that all of his past contributions to date, including those he will continue to add in the future, we can attribute it to her. 

Now, that’s impact. 

On the other side of the spectrum: how many people do we know of, who are very technically competent at what they do, yet seem to leave behind a trail of destruction in their wake? Those who become toxic influences in their environment? 

When people “deliver results” but burn bridges along the way, there are a lot of severe intangible consequences. 

In his book “Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality”, author Dr. Henry Cloud shares his experience mentoring a CEO of a company. His VP in sales was great at delivering business results, but there was only one problem: he had a problematic, “strong” personality that, although was driven and ambitious, tends to disrespect, running over them and seem to upset everyone around him - including two VPs who expressed their intention to leave because of this guy.

The author highlights that although it might “seem” on paper that the VP is “delivering”, but what we must consider is the expense that he is incurring: how many hours are wasted with people complaining about him? Stretch that out over the years, multiply that with the hourly rate of the manhours? How about the lost opportunity of what the people could have done if we hadn’t had to sort out these internal problems? Or the cost of finding two new VPs to replace those who are about to leave? 

Finally, he asked “Do you STILL feel like he is such a great deal?”

One of the roles of leaders is to have an appreciation to the morale effect of our team, and look beyond their individual contributions. 

This is where the author makes his point: The Wake we leave behind. The morale effect.

“Just as we leave the effects of our work behind in results, we leave the effects of our interactions with people behind in their hearts, minds, and souls. We leave a wake of people behind us as we move through their lives and their organizations. We leave a wake behind as we move through the lives of clients and partners.

We leave a wake behind as we move through our relationships with vendors and other alliances, as well as our entire industry. So, we must look out over the transom and ask ourselves, “What does that wake look like?”

Would (the people we interact with) say that their experience with us has left them better off for our having “moved through their lives,” or would they say that it has left them worse off? Did they consider it a blessing that they were associated with you, or a curse? What is the nature of the wake? Are they smiling or reeling?

Are they more trusting after working with us? Are they more fulfilled as people? Have they grown as a result of being associated with you? Do they feel better about themselves, and working with others? Did they learn from you and feel lifted up and encouraged? Were they stretched and inspired to become more than they were before they worked with or for you? Did your relationship cause them to produce more? Or, are they wounded? Less trusting? Feeling put down, cheated, or manipulated? Disappointed, let down, or lied to? Are they angry and just waiting for a chance to get even? Do they feel inferior, like a loser, or ashamed because of how you interacted with them? And the big question: “Would they want to do it again?” 

(End Quote)

This made me contemplate, to ask myself: As a leader, colleague, subordinate, a parent, a husband, a friend. One that I feel all of us SHOULD ask ourselves: 

What impact are am I leaving behind? What does MY wake look like? Have I made their lives better? 

So, my friend, what is your wake?