Communities Of Practice

ANDREI CACHIA

Following our first successful year which was an interesting and eventful one, the MCCM committee met to plan the events and activities for 2023.

During the first year I had the opportunity to meet a number of our members during some of our activities and a common suggestion was presented to me – that of organising events where individuals can actively participate in discussions, to share their expertise and further their own progress through a process of group learning.

Parallel to the foregoing, I came across a concept referred to as Community of Practice (COP). COP is made up of people who have a common interest, set of challenges, or enthusiasm for a particular topic and we as members of the Chamber, have Construction Project Management as our passion. Dr. Catlin Tucker, a professor in the Masters in the Arts of Teaching Program, cited scholars who proclaimed that the goal of individuals participating in a COP is ‘to deepen their learning in a process of collective learning’.

Although theory contends that COP asserts that people build their own knowledge and understanding of the world by engaging in experiences and reflecting on those experiences, it is in itself a social system. This presents the idea of fellow cohort sharing their tacit knowledge with each other to better practices. Hence, the idea developed to organise social events amongst the chambers’ members. The committee enthusiastically embraced this proposal, so Fabrizio, Chantal and I began to develop the idea with the assistance of other committee and working group members.

In order to test the waters, it was decided to hold quarterly sessions. It was also decided that 2023, should be devoted to meetings with various organisations that us as Construction Project Managers interact with on a regular basis on every project we manage.

Hence, the plan is to organise the first two sessions in April starting with the Environmental and Resource Authority (ERA). These mutual discussions will be succeeded with following discussions held with (not in a sequential order), the Planning Authority (PA), the Superintendence of Cultural and Heritage Authority (SCH), the Building Construction Authority (BCA), Transport Malta (TM), the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA), reps from the Ministry for Environment, Energy and Enterprise and also, one of the meetings will be focusing on the humanitarian aspect and thus, discussions will be organised with the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD), Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) and Civils Protection Department (CPD).

Our experiences, the results we achieved in our careers and our social connections, all play a role in how we learn. With this in mind, we asked our members to come forward with a set of queries they all might have or suggestions that they would like to present to these entities so that we could present to them in preparation for to forthcoming sessions. In parallel, we started getting in touch with representatives of these entities and even set one-to-one meetings with them to explain the concept to which we were welcomed with interest and even suggestions on how these sessions can take place.

The below timeline shows the proposed forecasted months in which these COPs will be organised. The first two COPs are aimed to have discussions with ERA and the planned dates are the 3rd and 24th April, 2023.

All members together with the general public will be invited to join in these discussions which will be informative and beneficial to all. For any enquiries it is being advised to get in touch with MCCM.