Rise to the Occasion

The story of a crisis of epic proportion and the lessons of leadership, innovation, motivation, and teamwork that effectively saved lives and the mine.

Rise to the Occasion tells the dramatic story of the men and women who safely led Utah’s 107-year-old Bingham Canyon Mine through the largest mining highwall failure in history. The Manefay failure resulted in 144.4 million tons of rock plummeting more than 2,000 feet and traveling 1.5 miles within 90 seconds—without a single death or injury. The story is told through the eyes of an insider, as the author was brought into the mine just six short weeks before the failure and was a key member of the management team.

It’s a Story Only He Can Tell. Illustrated with 160 full-color aerial and ground photos, charts, and illustrations, Rise to the Occasion details the unfolding events of the preparation, failure, and recovery efforts in moment-by-moment accounts. The author then leads the reader to valuable lessons that were learned and how to apply these lessons to any organization that faces risks.

The reader will learn to manage a crisis or normal operations by:

• Understanding, measuring, and acting on the greatest risks facing the organization.
• Creating a culture, based on communication, that inspires dedication, trust, and success.
• Wearing a “Black Hat” to challenge thinking that can blind an organization.
• Setting “impossible” goals that will not only be met but exceeded.
• Breaking down silos to improve teamwork and solve problems.
• Reducing bureaucracy and empowering people to increase innovation and expedite solutions.
• Using independent experts to provide different points of view and audit the processes.