The Marriott School’s Department of Organizational Leadership and Strategy named Kerry Patterson the 2004 William G. Dyer Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient. The Dyer Award is presented annually to an alumnus who makes a significant contribution in the field of organizational behavior. He wrote the New York Times bestseller, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High .
Patterson addressed BYU faculty, students, alumni and guests of the Organizational Behavior/Human Resources programs at a banquet March 26.
Patterson began his research into the challenges of developing and maintaining healthy organizations during his doctoral work at Stanford University. He co-founded Interact Performance Systems, where he worked for ten years as vice president of research and development. In 1990, Patterson left his position to co-found VitalSmarts, where he currently serves as chief development officer.
Patterson co-designed award-winning training programs focusing on interpersonal skills, cultural change and teamwork. Patterson’s training materials are currently employed by over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies and have been used to instruct thousands of leaders and hourly employees.
Patterson told banquet guests, “We were taught at BYU that we were supposed to go out and make the world a better place. And we believed it. It wasn’t a career or a job – it was a mission.”
He and his co-authors are currently writing the companion book to his first bestseller. The companion book is titled Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Talking about Violated Expectations and Broken Promises . He served as lead author of The Balancing Act: Mastering the Competing Demands of Leadership , published in 1996.
The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems, organizational behavior and entrepreneurship. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.
Writer: Lauren Funk (801) 422-1512
