The Long Walk to Decarb: An SKA Story - Steering Process Technologists towards NZCE 2050

With the title inspired by the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, my second paper presentation to the Process Technologists Community of Practice COP gathering focused on our NZCE 2050 journey: our story so far, what we've learnt & where we are heading. 

In some ways, our journey in the aspiration of decarbonization towards achieving Net Zero Cabon Emissions (NZCE) by 2050 parallels that of Mr. Mandela's: It's going to be a complicated, challenging & long journey!

Here are some key takeaways:

1. Courage to Act - Decarbonization is not easy! 

It's going to be tough. Not all decarb efforts necessarily yield instant tangible results. Some might prove to be "huge effort for little gain", therefore not everyone is easily convinced. So be steadfast with the End Goal in mind! 

2. Step by step - Though the goal is ambitious, we cannot resort to immediate drastic changes overnight. We need practical implementation: small changes, done consistently.  

As James Clear writes in his bestselling book Atomic Habits, "If you can get just 1 percent better each day, you'll end up with results that are nearly 37 times (i.e. 3,700%) better after one year!"

Prove through ONE example that it can be done. Blaze the trail, inspire others, replicate & expand. 

3. Be Enterprising: Seize the day! – Be Early Adopters & proactive steps to seize these opportunities, especially as the world moves towards the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. By Upskilling ourselves in this area, it allows us to build niche competencies & unique experiences - hot stuff for the industry!

4. INNOVATE NOW: As our President quoted in a recent Townhall: "insanity is doing the same thing over & over again, expecting different results"

If we stubbornly remain in our own bubble with the defensive "it's not my core job" mentality, it's very unlikely we'll achieve NZCE 2050. We need to challenge norms, leveraging our core skills as engineers to expand our ways of working to do things differently.

The Key is to take inspiration the Built to Last companies as Jim Collins writes in his book: “Try a lot of stuff & Keep What Works”.

5. “Scaffolding” – to tackle new challenges & start the ball ralling, provide “training wheels” support for upskilling & bridge the competency gap. In the book, "Hidden Potential", author Adam Grant coins the term "scaffolding": once the construction is complete, drop the temporary scaffolds.

6. Be Ambassador & Change Agent of GHG - information can be overwhelming out there. When everything seems "important", it's difficult pinpoint which efforts should be prioritized, with the limited resources we have. That's where we can step up: play the role as an advisor to our Leadership Team - to reconcile those complex ideas & distill them into practical, actionable insights. 

Been an exciting, enlightening journey so far. Looking forward for a greener future ahead!

Why is it so difficult to achieve 100% compliance for our documentation?

In our recent gathering of SKG 16.3 Process Technology Community of Practice (COP), I volunteered to share on two topics. This time, I chose something different from the usual technical sharing, & instead more of a management sharing. The topics were on Documentation (i.e. Process Safety Information, PSI) and GHG: How we can steer our process technologists towards NZCE 2050 from perspective of upstream operating assets. 

My first paper was "Our Epic PSI Journey at SKA: Why can’t we achieve 100% PSI compliance? Apa la yang susah sangat?"

So, what's so difficult to achieve 100% in documentation? 

It's easy to jump to conclusions and judge certain for "not doing your basic job", but as leaders, we need to hold our judgment and seek to understand. Take a closer, deeper look and understand what are the systemic issues that led us here. 

These are some things we learnt:

 

1. Rollover / Acquiring new assets from other operators - Other operators have different standards in documentation. That's just the nature of upstream businesses. When we acquire new assets, we need to be mindful about the documentation we deem "mandatory" and mindfully challenge "do we really need this?", or else we shoot ourselves in the foot in non-compliance.

2. Perfectionism: A Double-edged sword - Sometimes, having too high standards of completion can also harm documentation completeness and accessibility. For example, just because a project being is short of 1% completion (i.e. punchlist), it holds back the rest of the 99% from being readily accessible to others in times of need, e.g. investigations. 

3. Formality - is "document update" embedded in the formal business workflows? 

As human beings, we cannot just rely on "common sense" or "considered as understood" to actually get things done.

Just because it's "common sense" to exercise, doesn't mean everyone actually does it, right? 😉

If something needs to be done, it needs to be specific and defined. Example: During maintenance modification, is "drawing update" part of the completion checklist? 

4. Clarity in roles and responsibilities - Are the Document Owners aware of the responsibilities and the implications? Do they have the resources to actually do it?

At the end of the day, most important was to focus on the SOLUTION: Collaboration. 

We engaged our leaders, briefing them of the situation, and proposed to bring all the responsible departments under one working group (like a Task Force) - where we engage them, surface out the challenges together and iron out the discrepancies. We make clear scope segregation of "what is my scope" vs. what is not, and compartmentalize those efforts by different workstreams, to ensure our efforts don't overlap. 

We then brainstorm coming up with common resources for us to track and execute together with a unified deadline goal, instead of going by ourselves. 

This is how we Move Forward Together (MFT)!

Lessons from Concorde Air France flight 4590

In recent morning meeting at offshore NC3, I volunteered to do a safety sharing: Lessons from Concorde Air France flight 4590

Anyone remember the Concorde? 

Back when I was growing up, it was heralded as the technological marvel of the decade. Able to fly at cruising speed of Mach 2 - twice the speed of sound - over 2,100 km/h (for reference, the commercial Boeing 737-800 runs ~800 km/h), many of us grew fond of this airplane, wishfully thinking we could someday board this futuristic aircraft. 

Unfortunately, that might never materialize, as Concorde ceased operations in 2003. 

Besides, each one-way flight cost about ~US$9,000 😅

One of the major incidents that triggered the Concorde to close shop was an incident that happened in July 2000 - Air France flight 4590, in the famous photograph of the fiery takeoff 🔥. Though it may look like a scene from a science fiction moving of a spaceship turning on its afterburners, it was in fact a major fire incident, as the plane burst in flames due to a rupture in the fuel tank just as it was taking off. The pilot lost control, and crashed to a hotel nearby, instantly killing all 109 passengers onboard, and four more on the ground. 

What happened? 

The biggest evidence was a small titanium strip on the runway - 43cm long, and a mere 1.4mm thick: thinner than a coin. 

Upon investigation, it was found that this piece didn't belong to the Concorde. It belonged to another plane, Continental Airlines flight DC-10, which took off 5 minutes before that, and had this piece broke off the plane during takeoff, due to a non-standard repair and poor workmanship by the mechanic. It didn't affect flight DC-10, but it did affect the flight after: Concorde Flight 4590. 

When the Concorde was taking off at a speed of 300 km/hr running over that titanium strip, the metal strip tore through the plane's tyre, sending a large chunk of tyre debris (4.5 kgs) into the fuel tank on the underside of the left wing at an estimated speed of 140 m/s (500 km/h) - basically, hitting the fuel tank the speed of a missile, causing it to rupture and burst into flames.

What can we learn from this? 

1. Poor maintenance workmanship & QC can have dire consequences. The mechanic for Continental Airlines was charged with manslaughter for his negligence.

2. When it comes to safety in a shared workspace, sometimes our mistakes might cause harm to OTHERS, even though we're "fine". 

3. Importance of Housekeeping. This entire incident, the deaths of 113 people, happened because of a little piece of metal on a runway!

4. All it takes is one disaster to kill your business - in the entire 30+ years history of Concorde's service life, this was the one and only fatal accident. Yet it resulted in flight suspension for a year. By the time it resumed operations in November 2001 - post 9-11 - there was a general phobia for flying, dramatically affecting ticket sales, eventually made the Concorde economically unsustainable and ceased in 2003.

Offshore NC3 Visit: Fuel Gas Leaning, June 2024

My first time at NC3 platform!

For this trip, our process team mobilized to NC3 for implementation of our Fuel Gas Leaning optimization. As part of our decarbonization efforts towards meeting our Net Zero Carbon Emissions (NZCE) by 2050, it was an idea and proposal from Enterprise Decarbonizaiton and Carbon Management Division (CMD) teams, looking into how we can perform simple tweaks in our facilities to optimize our current fuel systems to reduce carbon emissions, as well as some gains in condensate recovery; “low hanging fruits” that don’t require capital project investment or modifications. Engineering study was completed, so now, all that’s left was site implementation. 

Why not just pass it to operations and let them handle it? 

As any engineer in the industry who’s been involved in any decarbonization efforts would know, it’s never that easy. 

Firstly, proposals like these require a habit change. Optimization often requires operations to do things outside of the norms of their comfort zones (norms which, might not be the most GHG-efficient approach), and they need some degree of technical assurance. 

Secondly, sometimes, without being embedded as “hard KPI”, there might be no true urgency in implementing decarbonization tasks. If they don’t actually implement it, there are no direct, tangible consequences. Platform operations will still go on. Production targets can still be met without any visible hazards or impacts in the short-term. At times, gains from low-hanging fruit efforts are sometimes so incremental that people question & challenge if it’s even worth it. 

Recognizing these challenges, we took the advice from our Energy Loss experts from our downstream counterparts: if we want to institutionalize changes towards decarbonization, it requires the human touch. In order to insitutionalize habit changes and challenge their comfort zone, we need to Go to the ground, get the technicians’ buy in, and implement them side-by-side with them. 

We first start by engaging the technicians, operators and supervisors about the big picture of our organizational aspirations of NZCE 2050, and hence the larger picture of Moving Forward Together (MFT 50:30:0): How the little things they do, while may seem insignificant, actually has a huge impact down the line. 

Empower them, that if this proposal is successful and if we stick the landing, it will become the benchmark and open up opportunities for other platforms to follow too. Set the stage for them to become icons, trailblazers and role models for others in the organisation.

Then, open up a platform for two-way conversation to go through the procedures step by step, discuss ideas, propose alternatives, provide feedback, raise concerns. Build collective ownership, iron out the quirks and execute them together. Often the mere presence of engineers onsite can bring that assurance and togetherness of shared responsibility. 

So far, so good!

“If we are sincere, we will see the results someday” – Jasamu Dikenang: Farewell to QD Anuar Ismail, 20 June 2024

 

An emotional Farewell session for our head of Sarawak Asset, Haji Anuar. Lots of valuable parting advice. He reminded us to instil three types of culture in our organization: 

1. Culture of Accountability (whether you have done right or wrong, own up to it and take responsibility)

2. Culture of cost-consciousness - always think with VALUE in mind 

3. Culture of Continuous improvement

But by far, my favorite pieces of parting advice is a reminder of ikhlas: be SINCERE in our job.

Many years ago, before his decorated career in oil & gas, he used to work as a teacher.

Recently, the chief of ACP Police came up to him, with a message of gratitude:

"Cikgu pernah ajar kita. Cikgu tak ingat tapi kami ingat"

You have taught us before. You might not remember us, but we remember. 

That little boy that was once his student is now chief of police.

So inspiring 🥲

His takeaway message from this moment:

"Bila buat kerja ikhlas, one day, kita akan nampak hasilnya"

When we do our work sincerely, one day, we WILL see the value of it.

The gathering was filled with words of gratitude and recognition, with one of our GM, head of production Haji B testifying, that QD Anuar consistently demonstrates these 7 Qualities of exemplary leadership:

1. Always giving others credit

2. Welcoming ideas

3. Encouraging growth and supporting it

4. Caring about our well-being and not just our work

5. Values our personal time

6. Leading by example

7. Making tough decisions with compassion

 

Much can be said about his leadership, and indeed I feel blessed to have experienced it firsthand.

But to me, above all that, what stood out to me most was his human touch. One memory that I will always treasure and remember was that he & his family came to our house for Aqiqah gathering of our first child, Muawiyah, back on 25th February 2018.

The birth of Muawiyah was a huge milestone in our family. After 8 years of marriage, Allah gifted us with this boy - and as part of Muslim tradition, we organize the Aqiqah: a feast to celebrate our newborns. The event was a big deal to us; we rarely have big gatherings at our place and we were excited to have friends, family and colleagues over. 

I blasted out invitations to as many contacts as I had. Then came a random wild gamble: why don't I just try inviting the big boss himself - our head of assets, (known as "BD" at the time), Anuar Ismail ?

Of all the managers I invited, none of them came. 

Except for BD Anuar. 

This is one of many of the little things he does that touches our hearts. An extension of his previous parting advice: Sincerity. 

There's a saying "people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel" 

##

Back in 2018, Alhamdulillah I made it to the final (national) level for Majlis Tilawah Al-Qur'an (MTAQ) PETRONAS, representing team Sarawak. Out of nowhere, I received a personal WhatsApp message from BD himself.

"you have made Sarawak region really proud"

Wow.

I remembered struggling to think of the right words to respond. Out of nowhere, here is this senior GM, head of assets, 5 reporting levels above, sending a personal message to this obscure process engineer. I felt so inspired and touched by that little gesture. 

Human touch, indeed. 

“If we are sincere, we will see the results someday” – Jasamu Dikenang: Farewell to QD Anuar Ismail, 20 June 2024

An emotional Farewell session for our head of Sarawak Asset, Haji Anuar. Lots of valuable parting advice. He reminded us to instil three types of culture in our organization: 

1. Culture of Accountability (whether you have done right or wrong, own up to it and take responsibility)

2. Culture of cost-consciousness - always think with VALUE in mind 

3. Culture of Continuous improvement

But by far, my favorite pieces of parting advice is a reminder of ikhlas: be SINCERE in our job.

Many years ago, before his decorated career in oil & gas,  he used to work as a teacher.

Recently, the chief of ACP Police came up to him, with a message of gratitude:

"Cikgu pernah ajar kita. Cikgu tak ingat tapi kami ingat"

You have taught us before. You might not remember us, but we remember. 

That little boy that was once his student is now chief of police.

So inspiring 🥲

His takeaway message from this moment:

"Bila buat kerja ikhlas, one day, kita akan nampak hasilnya"

When we do our work sincerely, one day, we WILL see the value of it.

The gathering was filled with words of gratitude and recognition, with one of our GM, head of production Haji B testifying, that QD Anuar consistently demonstrates these 7 Qualities of exemplary leadership:

1. Always giving others credit

2. Welcoming ideas

3. Encouraging growth and supporting it

4. Caring about our well-being and not just our work

5. Values our personal time

6. Leading by example

7. Making tough decisions with compassion

 

Much can be said about his leadership, and indeed I feel blessed to have experienced it firsthand.

But to me, above all that, what stood out to me most was his human touch. One memory that I will always treasure and remember was that he & his family came to our house for Aqiqah gathering of our first child, Muawiyah, back on 25th February 2018.

The birth of Muawiyah was a huge milestone in our family. After 8 years of marriage, Allah gifted us with this boy - and as part of Muslim tradition, we organize the Aqiqah: a feast to celebrate our newborns. The event was a big deal to us; we rarely have big gatherings at our place and we were excited to have friends, family and colleagues over. 

I blasted out invitations to as many contacts as I had. Then came a random wild gamble: why don't I just try inviting the big boss himself - our head of assets, (known as "BD" at the time), Anuar Ismail ?

Of all the managers I invited, none of them came. 

Except for BD Anuar. 

Back in 2018, Alhamdulillah I made it to the final (national) level for Majlis Tilawah Al-Qur'an (MTAQ) PETRONAS, representing team Sarawak. Out of nowhere, I received a personal WhatsApp message from BD himself.

"you have made Sarawak region really proud"

Wow.

I remembered struggling to think of the right words to respond. Out of nowhere, here is this senior GM, head of assets, 5 reporting levels above, sending a personal message to this obscure process engineer. I felt so inspired and touched by that little gesture. 

Human touch, indeed. 

These are just some one f many of the little things he does that touches our hearts. An extension of his previous parting advice: Sincerity. 

There's a saying "people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel" 

May Allah reward your kindness, generosity, and continue granting blessings upon your humility and leadership. 

Wishing you all the best for your future endeavors, in dunya and akhirah 🤲🏼

 

Be patient; Perhaps your Greatest Legacy is yet to come - A Reflection on Ibrahim (alayhissalam)

 (rewrite from 2022 post) 

During the celebration Eid Al adha one figure is always mentioned: Prophet ibrahim

Many imams will mention about his sacrifice, on how it initiated a practice (sunnah) that lives on today, thousands of years later and continues to live on. 

For me, what inspires me most about Ibrahim is his Legacy. 

Allah says, in praise of Ibrahim:

إِنَّ إِبْرَهِيمَ كَانَ أُمَّةً قَـنِتًا لِلَّهِ حَنِيفًا وَلَمْ يَكُ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ

“Verily, Ibrahim was (himself) an Ummah, obedient to Allah, a Hanif (monotheist), and he was not one of those who worship idols” (An-Nahl, 16:120)

In this ayah, Allah describes Ibrahim as an Ummah. This word, “أُمَّةً” literally means a nation, a community, a group, or a period in time. Although scholars of Tafsir mention that this means "imam", there is no other person in the Qur’an whom Allah refers to with this title of "ummah". His virtue as a community-builder was so great, that he was virtually a one-man nation.

The significance of this title can even be seen today, in the 21st century: As the common patriarch of the “Abrahamic religions”, Prophet Ibrahim is the most respected and loved human being on the planet today, which includes followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - covering over 55% of the world population today, in 2024:. That’s over 4 billion people today! 

Plot twist: he barely had any followers throughout his lifetime. 

When he was about to confront the tyrant Namrud (Nimrod), Ibrahim said to his wife, Sarah:

“O Sarah! There are no believers on the surface of the earth except you and I.” (Al-Bukhari)

That's right: Virtually zero followers. So, how was his legacy kept alive after all these centuries?

The legacy of Ibrahim was through his two sons: Prophets Ishaq and Ismail. It was through Prophet Ishaq – that sired the lineage of Israel (Ya’qub) and the entirety of the Children of Israel. And through Ismail, the final messenger: Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. 

His legacy spread AFTER his death. 

But to appreciate the legacy, let’s understand one level deeper: WHEN in his lifetime were his sons born?

In his book of tafsir, the scholar Ibn Kathir says:

Ismail was born when Ibrahim, was 86 years old, and Ishaq was born when Ibrahim was 99 years old. 

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THIS: 

Be Patient. Focus on YOUR Efforts. Leave the Results to Allah.

Great things take time. Be patient, remain steadfast: Perhaps our greatest legacy is yet to come. 

Don’t be disheartened if our sincere efforts, seem to have no apparent results. Perhaps your biggest opportunities are ahead of you, and Allah is preparing you for that moment. Testing your sincerity. Allowing you to grow. You never know when your big break - your tipping point - will be gifted by Allah soon: in days, months, or years.

After all, Prophet Ibrahim had his “big break” - his first child - only when he was 86 years old. 

“Ego is the Enemy”: How Humility is one of the secret superpowers of being an extraordinary professional and a flat-out awesome human being

In the book “Good to Great”, author Jim Collins outlines that one of the key success factors of good-to-great companies was the presence of what he coins “Level 5 Leaders”. The surprising thing to me, though, was what was the main characteristics of Level 5 Leadership:

Humility. Modesty. Reserved. Gracious. 

Wait, what? Why? How does humility make one a more effective leader in business? 

In the book, “Ego is the Enemy”, author Ryan Holiday sheds light on multiple perspectives the opposite side of the spectrum: of how Ego and arrogance lead to failure:

"Ego is the enemy of what you want and of what you have: Of mastering a craft. Of real creative insight. Of working well with others. Of building loyalty and support. Of longevity. Of repeating and retaining your success. It repulses advantages and opportunities. It’s a magnet for enemies and errors". 

In his other book “How the Mighty Fall”, Jim Collins also writes about the common patterns of how big companies fall. 

And what is the first stage of decline? The first tell-tale sign of impending failure? 

Hubris (arrogance), born of success.

This outlines some practical wisdoms behind why Islam tells us to clean our hearts from the disease of arrogance. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said,

“A person with a mustard seed’s worth of arrogance will not enter Paradise! (Arrogance is) to deny the truth, and look down on others” (Muslim)

The more I read about this subject, the more I'm convinced, that not only ego is the biggest barrier against success, but the other way around holds true: Humility may very well be one of the superpowers to be successful in life. 

Here are 10 aspects of Humility that reallly stood out. Being Humble enables us to:

1. Know when to put aside our self-importance, opinions or preferences, to prioritize a higher purpose and greater good. To have the maturity to accept the truth, even if that truth goes against our convenience, pride or desires. 

This makes us better team players & followers - to support and carry the vision of our leaders, as well as learning to Let Go for the greater good

2. B⁠e better learners & effective students

"The pretense of knowledge is our most dangerous vice, because it prevents us from getting any better. You can’t learn if you think you already know. You will not find the answers if you’re too conceited and self-assured to ask the questions. You cannot get better if you’re convinced you are the best." (Ego is the Enemy)

Humility enables us to develop a genuine sense of curiosity and a sincere desire to learn from others, not getting complacent with what we know. To Accept constructive criticism and tough feedback like a pro, not taking things personally. 

By extension, humility makes you a better student - by being more resilient in enduring your tough bosses, teachers, or seniors. And to have more courage to ask questions, without the egoistic fear of "looking stupid"

3. Be respectful, and hence more collaborative with others - even if you don't "like" someone, you have enough humility to put your personal preferences aside, find the common ground between yourselves to collaborate towards the greater good

4. Make you a genuinely better Listener - Not only by making room for silence and allowing others to speak instead of just waiting for your time to respond, humility lays the groundwork of curiosity and respect to be great at listening. 

This is why, in his book "Never Split the difference", author Chris Voss said “really smart people often have trouble being negotiators” 

    

Why? Ego.

    

“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."

    

7. Become more productive, have better self-development and Self-awareness - by accepting our own shortcomings, we become more objectively conscious about how we can improve ourselves and focus on “what can I do”, instead of being denial, blaming external circumstances or other people and ruminating in your plight and living with an entitlement mindset.

8. Be more appreciative: by preventing us from over-inflating our self-worth and attributing “success” to our own selves, humility helps us seek the good in others, acknowledge them, and say positive words of affirmation and recognition.

9. Forgive others - by putting "my ego" and "my rights" out of the equation, it enables us to objectively move on when others apologize, having the maturity to put aside our desire to seek revenge of payback just for personal gratification. 

10. Face situations of defeat with confidence and class, gracefully "losing" by keeping our head up high in the name of good sportsmanship, professionalism or simply to elevate those around us. Strategically, accepting defeat also allows us to pick our battles, knowing when to concede and to step down (i.e. “lose the battle, win the war”)

It’s interesting, when we reflect the above, we can see some wisdom behind why Prophet Muhammad ﷺ put so much emphasis on humility & modesty:

وَمَا تَوَاضَعَ أَحَدٌ لِلَّهِ إِلاَّ رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ

“The one who shows humility, Allah will elevate him” (Muslim)

الْحَيَاءُ لاَ يَأْتِي إِلاَّ بِخَيْرٍ

“Al-Haya (modesty, shyness, humbleness) does not bring in anything except good” (Al-Bukhari)

وَمَا كَانَ الْحَيَاءُ فِي شَيْءٍ إِلاَّ زَانَهُ

“Whenever modesty is present in something, it beautifies it” (At-Tirmidzi)

Convinced? Do you agree, that the ingredients above can make you an extraordinary professional, and just a flat-out-awesome human being? Share your thoughts !

Professional Development Plan (PDP)

Being the human beings we are, every staff is unique and has their own development goals. 

This year, I proposed to implement something new for our team of Engineers: Professional Development Plan.

The objective is to streamline and clarify their professional goals, and as their manager, how can I play my part to assist them to improve their productivity, efficiency to contribute to the organization, and at the same time simultaneously aligning for their individual aspirations, so we can customize the plan to what fits their personal context, and identify opportunities for diversifying their careers and internal transfers. 

Although we have similar system in place, I felt it was missing some important info and components, so we added them to have a more holistic and transparent outlook of their professional development. 

The PDP mainly revolves around three themes: Past (your experience, what you’ve done & achieved so far), Future (where are you headed? What are your goals?), and Present (what can we do now?). These are the main elements:

1. Career Aspirations / Focus Goals - What is your current trajectory? In the long run, what do you aspire to achieve (at least, at this point of time): a technical professional, manager, GM, VP? Or do you even feel like changing career path altogether? Let’s identify your goals, and figure out how we can achieve that together.

2. Coach - choose who you want to be your unofficial “coach”. The purpose of this is to choose someone in addition to the official coach (superior) from someone they feel comfortable to develop with. On the other hand, it’s also to open up opportunities for empowering senior engineers and other technical professionals in coaching and guiding others. 

3. Past experience - This is particularly important when taking over a new team or handling new recruits. We don’t necessarily know everyone’s backstories. This important section acts as a summary high-level CV, to acknowledge and recognize the staff’s past history in the context of their professional experiences, especially those we might not be aware of before we joined or they joined the team and/or the company. To identify their areas of specialization (and potentially assign them as SME’s within the team), as well as development gaps (i.e. what else they may need to experience before they take up leadership roles)

4. Competency goals this year - Our organization tracks development via a system called “Superior Managed Assessment” (SMA) which allows managers and staff to conduct any number of competency assessments per year. It’s flexible, but it’s also dangerous: without clear-cut plans in place, people tend to procrastinate and leave it off until the end of the year, or cram everything last minute just for promotion. But how many SMA is “enough”? Or too little? With this PDP, we outline which competency gaps you want to focus on - especially relating to your current work assignments, what competency level you need, and how many we should aim for the year as our development goals to stay on track with your career trajectory. 

5. Trainings & Supplementary courses to help achieve those goals.

6. Assistance you need from the manager - Are there major obstacles preventing you from development? Would you need a special assignment or attachment?   

7. Manager comments & discussion - once they filled in their PDP, we use this as the basis of career conversations. Where necessary, we can help fill in the gaps, and make suggestions to enhance them: e.g. alternative training suggestions, soft skills to develop. 

8. Manager signoff - the proverbial “handshake” to seal the commitment. This is also important to establish a sense of continuity and sustainability. In the event of staff or superior mobility and transfers, the signed off PDP can serve as a launchpad into future development plans in subsequent years. 

Any thoughts? Does your workplace have similar plans? Any suggestions to enhance the above?

Canopy and Long Langsat River Walk - Muawiyah, family and friends go to Mulu: Day 3, Sunday 2 June 2024

 

Our third day began early, heading to the 25-metre high canopy walk, starting off our trek at 7:00am. The canopy walk has a minimum age of 6 and above, so the rest of the little ones (including baby Rumaysa) had to stay back in their rooms. 

At 420m in length, one of the longest tree based canopy walks in the world, the  Mulu Canopy was is quite the construction and engineering marvel. 

You can just feel the impressive planning and execution work, with meticulous careful route planning required to lay solid pathways and cables across the strong, tall trees, without usage of heavy cranes and big machinery in the protected forest of a world heritage area. A breathtaking experience through a couple of river crossings, with a beautiful epic view overlooking the massive mountainous cave formation at the background. 

11,000 steps later, we then headed off to our well-earned  breakfast, before gearing up for one of the most thrilling adventures of the trip: Long Langsat Riverwalk. 

After a 1-hour boat ride, we parked just by the river mouth, before the main attraction of the Riverwalk: where we trekked for about 40 minutes upstream of the rapid flowing river, going as deep as 1 meter before reaching the waterfall at the end. It was a challenging walk, especially for the 6-year old little dudes, and even for me, trying to find solid footing on the rocky surfaces with baby Rumaysa on our baby carrier. 

Frankly, the waterfall at the end wasn't anything particularly spectacular, but as my buddy and fellow dad Syafiq said: "frankly, I couldn't care less about the waterfall. It was all about the experience of exposing these kids to the challenge of the river walk. Bagi diorg lasak sikit". 

And it's really quite satisfying to witness these little fellas tackle new challenges and push themselves outside of their comfort zones. And therein lies an interesting leadership & Parenting observation: Because they had peer pressure through the presence of their friends ("hey, even the girls are walking by themselves and they aren't complaining!") and adult supports for safety, the kids (including 6yo Muawiyah) could muster enough courage and resilience to push through, and in the end they did really well, with zero tantrums, breakdowns or incidents by the end of the 4-hour adventure. That's a parenting win in my books! 🎖️

Before heading back, our group mates requested the boatmen to show us around his hometown, Long Iman - one of the longhouse villages along the river. 

Overall, though a little pricey (costing between RM4k for the four of us for a 3 nights stay, flying from Miri), Alhamdulillah our Mulu trip was a nice experience with lots of variety - from caving, trekking, riverwalk, canopy walk - and was a blast to experience with groups of friends with their families. 

Muawiyah, family and friends go to Mulu - Day 2, Saturday 1 June 2024

 

After a surprisingly exciting encounter with a Grey-tailed Racer snake 🐍 at the Mulu National Park entrance, we started off our boat ride at 10:00am headed towards the Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave. 

We first stopped by the Batu Bungan Community market, where we had a blast by the Sumpit (blowpipe) shooting range 🎯 

Interesting sightings of the Lantern bug 🏮 and the One-Leaf plant 🍃

Note #1 to future self: National park is strict about leaving the cave premises by 1:30pm. So, if you start late, you eat into your exploring time - unfortunately by the time we finished the caves was close to 1:30 hence our group didn't get to swim in the clearwater streams. Maybe next time. 

Note #2 to future self: bring a camera with good night mode and zoom capabilities - it makes all the difference. 

The versatile features of the S24 camera really pulled its weight here.. Exceeded our expectations like a champ. Well done #TeamSamsung🏆

Muawiyah, family and friends go to Mulu - Day 1, Friday 31 May 2024

 

What a day to kickoff our first day for our Gawai Long-weekend holiday at Mulu: with 21,000 steps! 

This trip we went with 3 other families: Faiz+Rosma, Syazana+Syafiq, and Yani+Haris (9 adults + 9 kids) 

Flying in from Miri via MAS Wings, we arrived at Mulu at 1:00pm. After checking in at Mulu Marriott, we headed to the national park entrance at 2:30 to immediately start our first caving adventure: to catch the bats sighting before sunset 🦇🦇🦇

After a 3km trek, we arrived at the cave entrance at 4:00pm, where we went in Deer Cave, quickly check out the famous Abraham Lincoln 🗿 before we headed back out to look at the bats moving out, from 6:00 to 6:30pm. It was a sight to behold, indeed: to see the bats moving out graceful in formation within their groups, as they head out for food: primarily insects. 

Fun fact: unlike most other forests in Malaysia, the whole Mulu barely has any mosquitos or flies, because they get eaten up by the bats! We never had to use our repellants 👍🏼

Just when we thought the day was over after the bat sighting, the evening gets interesting as there was a sudden burst of constant, heavy rain - and continues to pour throughout the entirety of our 3km walk back to the national Park entrance. In the dark with kids... That wasn't easy! After a long night walk in the rain, we made it Alhamdulillah: back at the park entrance at 7:30, and back at our rooms around 8. 

Pretty exciting start, as we ended with the day with over 21k steps with the kids in s good mood, having gone through that tough adventure with their friends. 

Muawiyah was pretty proud of himself for too: "Abah, I walk the whole journey by myself, no one had to carry me" 😁. Well done, little man. Well done indeed. Masha Allah.. Allahumma barik 🤲🏼