“There are no straight roads to the places we want to go ...”
Scott C. Hammond
About
An internationally recognized researcher and award winning teacher and author, Scott C. Hammond, PhD is a Professor of Management in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. His research on highly reliable teams and group complex problem-solving has been published by the International Journal of Search and Rescue, where he is also a coeditor. He lives his directly relevant research as a member of the Utah County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team where he is a veteran of over 300+ mountain rescue missions. He often works with his K-9 partner named “Boo.”
After 30 years as a consultant and professor, Scott’s volunteer work with search and rescue teams has spurred ground breaking ideas about highly reliable teams. He says, “When you hike up a mountain with a team to rescue someone on the worse day of their life, you learn more about team reliability than any distant academic research can provide. In the last ten years I have seen team dysfunction and team perfection. I have taken the best practices from our SAR team and used them to inform observation with other SAR teams, fight fighters, medical teams, construction, technology, scientific research and many other teams. The teams that face critical and dynamic problems, where failure is high consequence, are the teams that can teach us all about reliability.”
He is the author of over fifty academic articles, and five books, including Lessons of the Lost: Finding Hope and Resilience in Work, Life and Wilderness (2016) (https://www.bkconnection.com/books/title/lessons-of-the-lost) , and The Peach and the Coconut: A Leader’s Guide to Culture (2018). His “Management Minute” on KSL radio is heard by 25 thousand plus listeners every day. He is regular guest on radio programs nationwide, including The Lisa Show (2020) and the Hugh Hewett Show (2014). He has been quoted in Fast Company, US News and World Report, The Denver Post, and many other publications.
In the last year he has worked with Wounded Warriors on wayfinding in work, life and the wilderness, provided online team reliability training for Big-D Construction in seven states, and created online team reliability training for the National Association for Search and Rescue, and presented live or virtually to the Mountain Rescue Association (MRI), International Technical Rescue Symposium (ITRS), Medical Technology Incorporated (MRI), and other groups in the US, Canada and Romania. For more, go to highlyreliableteams.com.
In previous years he has provided consulting to consulting to Alticor (Amway), Boart Longyear, Ashley Valley Regional Medical Center, Monsanto, Searle, Royal Dutch Shell, The National Park Service, Intermountain Health Care, KSL Television (NBC), NCS Education, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, others many.
Scott holds a Masters in Organizational Behavior (MOB) from Brigham Young University and a doctorate (PhD) in Organizational Communication from the University of Utah. He has published numerous articles on organizational change, leadership and dialogic problem solving.
