Oscar Munoz stepped all over himself in three separate statements, hurt brand further…
My wife was a teacher for approximately ten years. One piece of advice that she loves to pass on to new teachers is the power of teachable moments. A teachable moment involves taking an event that the student can relate to and using it to impart a lesson. One of those moments was created by the CEO of United Airlines in reference to the forced removal of a passenger Sunday, April 9, 2017.
Before we go into the story, I must rant a moment. I am bothered by the total and absolute lack of responsibility from almost everyone in America today. This was admittedly somewhat of a culture shock for me upon retiring from the Army. In the military, taking responsibility for your actions was forced upon us from our first day of basic training. No one expects perfection, they just expect you to learn from your mistakes, and the first part of that is understanding your part in what happened. Even in combat most mistakes made on the battlefield can be forgiven as long as the commander can do two things: intelligently explain the decision-making process, and take responsibility for their actions (of course the mistakes must be in relationship to the expected knowledge and experience one should have at their rank). Trust is what makes the entire chain of command work in the military. The essential pillar of this trust is integrity, and that means being honest with yourself as well as others. Looking inward at your own weaknesses and being able to address them is a huge part of that.
Back to United Airlines. The background to the story is a commonplace scene in the airline industry of late. United overbooked the plane and needed to free up some seats for crew members. They attempted to get volunteers through vouchers and such, but no one volunteered. In the end, United randomly selected passengers on the plane who were then voluntold (meaning volunteered by someone against their will which is a nice way of saying being told) to leave the plane. The majority of passengers left without much difficulty, albeit some very valid grumbling, until they came to a doctor (also known as the victim) who was simply not willing to give up his seat. His reasoning, as reported by several news agencies, did in fact make sense. He had patients to see the following day and as a doctor he could not simply ignore his responsibility to them. To me, as a man who is himself getting older and more dependent on the assistance of my doctor, I completely respect and am even grateful for this reasoning.
However, this was not sufficient enough of a reason for United Airlines, who had the man forcibly removed from the plane by security. From all accounts (and video from passengers) that have been so far released the doctor did not in any way resist the security. He simply went limp, forcing them to drag him away. The whole time this was occurring the other passengers can be heard telling the security and airline employees how wrong their actions were against this man. Even though he went without fighting back, he can be seen bleeding from his face from injuries received while not resisting.
Two days later, United Airlines CEO, Oscar Munoz, reacted by issuing the following message, “I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right.” Further he stated, “It’s never too late to do the right thing. I have committed to our customers and our employees that we are going to fix what’s broken so this never happens again.” Clearly this is a teachable moment about taking responsibility, right? Far from it. This is a teachable moment on getting caught trying to whitewash and being forced by public outcry to mitigate the actual actions your company took.
This response was actually the third communication sent out by Munoz. The first response, sent out Monday, was simply, “This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation.” Where exactly is the responsibility for forcing a passenger off a plane after he paid for the seat he was sitting in? In fact, where is there any mention of the incident whatsoever?
It gets even worse from there. After issuing what is clearly a non-apology for the actual assault that took place, Munoz sent out an email to the company where he called the passive man, “disruptive and belligerent” and stated that airport security was, “unable to gain his cooperation and physically removed him from the flight as he continued to resist…” In other words, it was perfectly just and morally sound to force someone who in good faith paid for the right to use your services off your plane and have him injured by security in the process because you knowingly gambled on (and lost) having people not show up for a flight. What country are we living in … really?
Clearly the people did not agree with the CEO, as stocks plummeted and public outrage grew on social media. Here is the lesson learned from this teachable moment – the importance of honesty and responsibility. Had the CEO immediately taken responsibility, promised an investigation, and actually issued an apology (something that he only did after realizing the horrible optics he created), the outcome would have been very different.
There are two very clear lessons that can be taken from this. First and foremost, honesty and sincerity are always better than what I refer to as the evil triad of mitigating personal responsibility: accuse, counter accuse, deny. Stand up and admit things went wrong. You are the boss Mr. Munoz, everything that happens or fails to happen in your company is ultimately your responsibility. Don’t hide from it. Show strength of moral character and accept the faults of your employees, then lead them in a better direction.
Secondly, this is what happens when government puts a shield of protection and regulation around an industry. The airlines have become too powerful and overly protected. Just as the government itself, they have forgotten that they service the people, not the other way around. Just as is the current case with the government, the people the airlines service have no choice but to capitulate to them.
Unfortunately, ethics in this industry mean far less than their stocks. It is sad when the only reason someone will apologize these days is that they were caught and backed into a corner with no more available excuses. Maybe a change will come from this, but I don’t have much hope. People will call for boycotts, but the airlines have virtual monopolies on their routes. If you have to fly and United offers the best fares or has the only direct flight then what are you going to do?
If the government is going to regulate the airline industry, then it is time that they do something to actually help make things better. Allowing airlines to overbook is a business practice that would never work in any industry that did not hold a stranglehold over the consumers.
Just as importantly, it is time that we stop accepting excuses and denials from those that err. It is time that we demand truth and honesty, and not just in business. We need to change our cultural norms and celebrate truth, not excuses.
