Lincoln Project Statement
Frank Bruni is right his article, ”When You Don’t Have Trump to Hide Behind: There’s now space for other scandals. Witness the Lincoln Project.” I’ve been missing hearing about improprieties with the shadow of Trump for the past four years. Now trouble at the Lincoln Project, a political group started in 2018 by Republicans to prevent the re-election of the former president, has come to light.
The issue raises questions of integrity. As the organization criticized the former president for his actions, 21 young men accused one founder of sexual harassment, while organization leaders knew of but did nothing about their complaints. In addition, questions linger about whether group leaders misused funds for personal gain.
The one leader accused of “grooming young men online” responded in a statement:
I am so disheartened and sad that I may have brought discomfort to anyone in what I thought at the time were mutually consensual discussions. In living a deeply closeted life, I allowed my pain to cause pain for others. For that I am truly sorry to these men and everyone and for letting so many people down.
The Lincoln Project also issued an official statement. One, dated January 30, isn’t available because of a broken link on the homepage. But another, dated February 14, is below:
The Lincoln Project has retained the law firm of Paul Hastings to investigate allegations of inappropriate behavior by John Weaver as part of a comprehensive review of our operations and culture. The review process is currently underway.
We are committed to creating a positive, diverse, and inclusive workplace environment at The Lincoln Project and inappropriate behavior by anyone associated with the organization will not be tolerated under any circumstances. We have already taken decisive action to address internal concerns. Additionally, we are releasing staff and former staff from the confidentiality provisions in their employment agreements to discuss their workplace environment. Based on the findings of this review we will take all necessary action to correct any issues or deficiencies that are identified.
Concurrently, we are also working with outside counsel and professional consultants to strengthen our corporate governance, finance and operational structure, human resources, and leadership to position The Lincoln Project to further maximize our impact and lean into our important mission advancing democracy.
The Lincoln Project was founded to combat political forces who seek to undermine our democracy. We revolutionized how political action committees operate and spent $81 million last cycle to create and place more than 300 advertisements, host national town halls, conduct voter outreach, and launch a podcast and streaming video network that engaged millions of voters. Eighty percent of our funds went to voter contact and content production. Our historic results speak for themselves.
Moving forward, we have important work ahead of us and we have created a nationwide movement of Americans who support our objectives.
In order to continue fulfilling our promise to our millions of supporters and contributors, we must address any and all internal organizational issues immediately and put in place a governance and diverse leadership structure that reflects our core values and ensures we will continue to attract the best talent available.
The Lincoln Project will continue producing and distributing our popular content and commentary while these reviews are being conducted and we are operating at full capacity.
The statement start is unfortunate and squirrely. Perhaps an apology might be more appropriate? As an apology, if this is the intent, the statement doesn’t work very well. Apologies admit specific wrongdoing, acknowledge the impact, and describe positive steps planning for the future. I don’t see that here.
COVID-19 Crisis Communication for Reopening the U.S.
What comes after we “flatten the curve” of COVID cases? New York Times opinion writer Charlie Warzel warns that, without a clear communication strategy for what’s next, people will distrust leaders.
Warzel cites six communication guidelines from the report of a working group at The University of Minnesota, The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRP).:
Don’t Over Reassure.
Proclaim Uncertainty
Validate Emotions—Your Audience’s and Your Own
Give People Things to Do
Admit and Apologize for Errors
Share Dilemma
Discussion:
How should U.S. officials communicate now? What do they need to accomplish, and how well are our current leaders meeting the challenge? In other words, do you agree with Warzel that our leaders are falling short?
Read the entire report. What other principles does the group recommend?
Analyze the report: the audiences, objectives, writing style, organization, and so on. What are the strengths, and how could it be improved?
A Leader Example in My Book Is Charged With Conspiracy
I was sad to see that Paul Kruse, former CEO of Blue Bell Creamery, has been charged with covering up the listeria breakout in 2015. In my book, Building Leadership Character, Kruse is a positive example of a leader who demonstrates vulnerability. His 2016 video announcing employee layoffs after the breakout was emotional and authentic.
Prosecutors say that Kruse delayed recalling tainted products, instructed employees to tell customers that product delays were caused by mechanical problems, and failed to take other appropriate action.
Blue Bell agreed to pay $19.5 million to the Department of Justice and posted a statement on its website, which focuses more on the future than on the past.
Discussion:
Can you reconcile both perspectives of Kruse as a leader? Could he be someone who covers up listeria and someone who gets emotional when talking about employee layoffs?
Assess the company’s statement. Who are the audiences, and what are the communication objectives?
Message from Zoom CEO
People who never heard of Zoom are now relying on the company to provide flawless service, but of course we experience problems. In a blog post, CEO Eric Yuan describes how Zoom use has “ballooned overnight” and what the company has done to meet demand and improve the service.
Yuan also expresses gratitude to Zoom users at the end of the post, demonstrating business communication principles and leadership character:
Transparency has always been a core part of our culture. I am committed to being open and honest with you about areas where we are strengthening our platform and areas where users can take steps of their own to best use and protect themselves on the platform.
We welcome your continued questions and encourage you to provide us with feedback – our chief concern, now and always, is making users happy and ensuring that the safety, privacy, and security of our platform is worthy of the trust you all have put in us.
Together, let’s build something that can truly make the world a better place!
Discussion:
Analyze the blog post: audiences, communication objectives, organizational structure, writing style, etc.
What business communication principles does the blog post illustrate? What improvements would you suggest?
What leadership character dimensions are illustrated in this example?
Luckin COO Fabricated Sales Data
Luckin’ Coffee, China’s largest coffee chain, is suffering the consequences of publishing false sales numbers. Ernst & Young discovered the misconduct, which took place in 2019, during an audit, concluding that “management personnel engaged in fabricated transactions which led to the inflation of the Company’s income, costs and expenses.” An investigation blames the chief operating officer and others.
A report details “the fraud and the fundamentally broken business,” including “smoking gun” evidence and “red flags.” The anonymous authors compare video recordings of store foot traffic to reported sales.
In response to the news, Luckin’s stock declined between 75 and 80%. Starting in February, when the anonymous report was made public, the company has been posting notices about the situation on its website.
Discussion:
Analyze the anonymous report, including the audiences, objectives, organization, writing style, etc. What works well, and how would suggest that the writer improve the report?
How well did the company address concerns? Begin with the first response in February.
What leadership character dimensions does this situation illustrate?
Tourism CEOs Meet with President Trump
President Trump invited CEOs of major tourism companies to discuss the COVID-19 response.
Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta began by highlighting issues in the industry:
“Hilton’s been around 100 years -- we’ve never closed a hotel that wasn’t going to be demolished or rebuilding, The bulk of our hotels in the major cities are closing as we speak.”
Nassetta was also complimentary to President Trump and Vice President Pence and said that he wanted to protect employees. The president reassured him that they’ll be up and running soon, although both said the situation is currently a “disaster” “all over the world.”
Discussion:
How would you describe the purpose of this gathering? What are President Trump’s objectives?
Assess each of the CEOs during the meeting. How well did they represent their brand?
Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong
Two students sent me Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s news conference as a positive example. I can see why: he gives a model speech, balancing emotional appeal and straight talk. He is proud of Singapore’s response, and yet he is honest about the challenges ahead. The PM also gives examples from other countries and the lessons learned.
Discussion:
What are the strengths of the Prime Minister’s speech?
Assess his delivery skills.
How have leaders in other countries followed this example—or how have they fell short?
Which leadership character dimensions does the PM demonstrate in his speech?
Comparing Airlines Messages About COVID-19
Transportation companies would like to see more people travel, yet people are wary of COVID-19. Compare these emails to travelers:
Discussion:
Analyze the messages: audience, communication objectives, organization, writing style, etc.
In what ways are the messages similar and different? How might the travel mode—airline or bus—affect the communication choices?
Which messages are most and least effective and why?
What’s your view of the American Airlines video? How does the media choice affect the message?
Apologies About the Iowa App
The New York Times published “everything that went wrong at the Iowa Caucases,” and it’s a long list about the app. The technology was untested and unfamiliar to volunteers, and connection problems prevented accurate data submission and reporting.
An opinion writer blamed “techno-utopianism and laziness” for the trouble: “The two fuel each other: The overarching belief that software will fix everything leads to slapdash engineering, procurement and deployment.”
Troy Price, the Iowa Democratic Party Chair, apologized for the “multiple reporting challenges.” He explains the decision to delay reporting to ensure “accuracy and integrity.”
The CEO of Shadow, the app company, also apologized:
“We sincerely regret the delay in the reporting of the results of last night's Iowa caucuses and the uncertainty it has caused to the candidates, their campaigns, and Democratic caucus-goers. As the Iowa Democratic Party has confirmed, the underlying data and collection process via Shadow's mobile caucus app was sound and accurate, but our process to transmit that caucus results data generated via the app to the IDP was not. Importantly, this issue did not affect the underlying caucus results data. We worked as quickly as possible overnight to resolve this issue, and the IDP has worked diligently to verify results. Shadow is an independent, for-profit technology company that contracted with the Iowa Democratic Party to build a caucus reporting mobile app, which was optional for local officials to use. The goal of the app was to ensure accuracy in a complex reporting process. We will apply the lessons learned in the future, and have already corrected the underlying technology issue. We take these issues very seriously, and are committed to improving and evolving to support the Democratic Party's goal of modernizing its election processes."
Discussion:
Analyze each of these apologies: the audiences, communication objectives, writing style, organization, delivery choice, etc. Each message has distinct purposes.
What works well in these statements, and what could be improved?
Wells Fargo Earnings Call
The Wells Fargo scandal of creating fake accounts became public in 2016, and the company is still suffering the repercussions. Profit is down 53%, and stock performance is lagging.
On an earnings call, Charles Scharf, who has been the CEO since October 2019, explained the bank’s current position:
I was honored to be chosen to lead Wells Fargo because I believe this is an extraordinary company that plays an important role in this country. We came out of the financial crisis as the most valuable and most respected bank in the US, but as you know, we made some terrible mistakes and have not effectively addressed our shortcomings. These circumstances have led to financial underperformance, but we have one of the most enviable financial services franchises in the world and employees that want to do what's necessary to again be one of the most respected and successful banks in the US.
Discussion:
Read the earnings call transcript. What’s your view of how Scharf and John R. Shrewsberry, EVP and CFO, addressed concerns?
How well has the bank recovered its image since 2016? What examples of their communications can you cite?
What could bank executives have done differently in the past four years?
How well does the line chart work to compare Wells to other leading banks? What could be improved?
Boeing Internal Documents Don't Reflect Well on Safety
The lead article in today’s The Wall Street Journal is titled, “Internal Boeing Documents Show Cavalier Attitude to Safety.” In 150 pages of emails and other documentation, employees worry that they don’t have enough time to correct safety issues and refer to regulators as “morons” and “stupider.”
In February 2018, one employee wrote, “Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t.” A pilot wrote, “I still haven’t been forgiven by god for the covering up I did last year. Can’t do it one more time. Pearly gates will be closed.” Still another employee wrote, “This airplane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys.”
A defense attorney argues that employees were just “blowing off steam” in their emails.
In the past few months, Boeing’s culture has come to light—once lauded as a place where people felt proud to work but now a place where people feel stressed and remorseful. CEO Doug Muilenberg has since been terminated and replaced temporarily by CFO Doug Smith.
Discussion:
Read more about the internal communications. What lessons can employees and their managers take away from this story?
What’s your view of the emails? Do they indicate big problems at the company, or is the attorney right that employees are just venting to each other? How does the concept of “cherry picking” come into play?
What should Boeing do to manage this situation? Consider this news in light of the company’s crisis communication planning you read about in another post.
Boeing's Crisis Communication Plan
During the holiday break, several news items about Boeing were relevant to business communication and character. In one article, the New York Times revealed internal Boeing documents showing a company trying to rebuild its image after two MAX crashes within a year..
The documents give us an inside view of how the company plans to use persuasive strategies to win back customers. In one graphic, we see customers’ willingness to fly. In another, we see customer concerns and ways Boeing can address them, for example, with FAQ cards, “pilot confidence videos,” or personal connections (for example, “Flight attendant offers comfort and information on the safety of the MAX”).
Discussion:
What persuasive strategies does the company plan? Try to find examples of logical argument, emotional appeal, and credibility.
What are the consequences of this information becoming public? Does it likely endear the public to the company’s concerns, embarrass the company, or something else?
Data in the Uber's Safety Report
Uber published its first safety report, and the company is lauded for its transparency. A Wall Street Journal article leads with the number of sexual assaults reported during the last two years: 5,981. Of course, any number is too many—no one should be assaulted in an Uber or anywhere else. And sexual assaults are notoriously underreported, so we have no idea how many have actually occurred.
At the same time, a skeptic might want to know the total number of rides in order to put the number of reports in context. The report does provide this information (see the report for footnotes):
The report makes additional attempts to put the numbers in context:
All of that work culminates in the Safety Report that we are sharing with you, the public, today. To put US safety challenges in context:
• In 2018, over 36,000 people lost their lives in car crashes in the United States alone (3)
• Approximately 20,000 people were the victims of homicide in 2017(4)
• Nearly 44% of women in the US have been a victim of sexual violence in their lifetime—which means that more than 52 million women live with that experience every day (5)
Every form of transportation is impacted by these issues. For example, the NYPD received 1,125 complaints of sex offenses in the transit system during the same time period covered by this report.(6,7) In the United States alone, more than 45 rides on Uber happen every second. At that scale, we are not immune to society’s most serious safety challenges, including sexual assault. Yet when collecting data for that portion of our report, we found there was no uniform industry standard for counting and categorizing those types of incidents.
The 84-page report is incredibly detailed and includes external reports for credibility and the number of charges for various types of assaults.
Discussion:
Analyze the report: the audience, communication objectives, organization, writing style, format. What works well, and what could be improved?
Does the context in these examples convince you that the numbers aren’t so bad? Why or why not?
Otherwise, how well does Uber address the safety issues? How do you assess the report credibility? What other questions do you have?
Why Entrepreneurs Don't Learn from Their Mistakes
A Wall Street Journal article describes research about failing entrepreneurs. The results are sobering: start-up business owners don’t seem to learn from their mistakes.
Francis Greene, at Edinburgh University Business School, explains several reasons for lack of learning. First, when entrepreneurs start new businesses, they have a different context and different customer, so any lessons learned from previous businesses might not apply. Greene also says that businesses typically “limp along”; during this slow-close process, it’s difficult to identify what the real problems were.
Finally, as you might expect, we have psychological barriers for failing to learn from failure. We tend to simplify reasons and blame external factors.
Greene suggests taking time to explore what happened after a business failed and ensuring that we have the industry expertise to succeed in the next venture.
Discussion:
This reminds me of Amy Edmondson’s HBR article, “Strategies for Learning from Failure.” What similarities and differences do see in their research findings and recommendations?
When have you failed? How did you learn from the experience? Can you identify ways to learn better in the future?
Fabricated Letters to the SEC
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is planning a policy change that, as a Bloomberg article describes, “would shift power from investors to corporate boards” and “limit[s] the power of dissenting shareholders.” Unfortunately, when Chairman Jay Clayton announced the change, he cited several fabricated letters of support to the SEC.
The SEC failed to recognize that many letters followed a similar template and included a random line in the mailing address—“A Coalition of Growth Companies.”
Clayton was impressed that the SEC heard from such a variety of people, such as veterans and retired police officers, but people contacted said they didn’t write the letter or agreed to having their name on a letter without understanding the implications.
The Bloomberg article reports Clayton’s response:
The SEC declined to comment on any irregularities with the letters. In a Tuesday interview, Clayton sidestepped a question about how the agency ensures comment letters are genuine. He did emphasize that the regulator’s potential revamp of shareholder voting rules are proposals, adding that there will be ample time for people on both sides to weigh in before any changes are finalized.
“We welcome input in all ways,” Clayton said in the interview with Bloomberg Television’s David Westin. “On this issue, where there are a lot of different views and a lot of different interests, we encourage people to come in and talk to us, send us their comments.”
Discussion:
How does something like this happen? Who is responsible?
Assess Clayton’s response. How well is he handling the situation? What, if anything, should he do differently?
What leadership character dimensions are illustrated by this situation?
Boeing CEO Responds to Questions
This week, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg answered lawmakers’ questions about the two Max 737 plane crashes in the past year. Facing families of deceased passengers, Muilenburg began his testimony with an apology:
“I’d like to begin by expressing my deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those who were lost in the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accidents, including those who are here in the room today. I wanted to let you know, on behalf of myself and all of the men and women of Boeing, how deeply sorry I am. As we observe today the solemn anniversary of the loss of Lion Air Flight 610, please know that we carry the memory of these accidents, and of your loved ones, with us every day. They will never be forgotten, and these tragedies will continue to drive us to do everything we can to make our airplanes and our industry safer.”
One of the most tense moments was when Senator Ted Cruz questioned Muilenburg (see video). Muilenburg also faced criticism as he was leaving. The mother of a victim of the second crash responded to his invoking his Iowa farm background:
“Go back to Iowa. Do that.” She also said, “I don't feel like you understand. It's come to the point where you're not the person anymore to solve the situation."
Discussion:
Watch more of Muilenburg’s testimony. What are some examples of questions he addressed well, and how could he have done better?
How well does Muilenburg balance emotional appeals, logical arguments, and credibility in his testimony?
What leadership character dimensions are illustrated by this situation and by Muilenburg’s testimony?
Muilenburg’s interaction with the mother is a difficult situation for anyone to handle, and we can certainly understand her grief and anger. How would you have responded?
CNN reports:
“In response, Muilenburg said he respects her viewpoint. "But I want to tell you the way I was brought up. And I'm just being honest here about it. I learned from my father in Iowa ... when things happen on your watch you have to own them and you have to take responsibility for fixing them," he said.
WeWork: "Humbler"
Several articles in the past few weeks have scolded WeWork CEO Adam Neumann and the investors who followed his story.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to describe Neumann’s odd behavior and published another article, “WeWork Investors Turned Off by ‘Sloppy’ IPO Filings.” The recent article explains one problem in the filings (shown below):
“A section headed ‘illustrative annual economics’ that assumed 100% workstation utilization vanished, for example, as did two graphs portraying a typical location going from ‘-$’ to ‘+$,’ with no y-axis showing the actual dollar amounts being depicted.”
A New York Times article, “Was WeWork Ever Going to Work?” criticizes investors for missing obvious problems with the company’s initial business plan, such as the reliance on start-up revenue when most entrepreneurial ventures fail. According to this report, it took people finally looking at the data to realize how much We is losing and how hard it will be for the company to succeed.
The article includes other examples of investors’ blind exuberance:
“It is not merely money that separates the ruling class from the rest of the country. Often it seems as if it is the gaping difference in the application of common sense. Ultimately, it was the bankers, technocrats, statesmen and acolytes of the data-junkie class who were willing to believe that Elizabeth Holmes, a 19-year-old college dropout who thought a black turtleneck would make her Steve Jobs, was going to revolutionize blood-testing. It didn’t seem to matter that she could not deliver any real evidence to prove it.”
An Inc. article, “The Future of WeWork: Leaner, Humbler, and Duller,” suggests a new path for We. The author suggests less hype, fewer employees, and more discipline for the company to survive.
Discussion:
Who do you blame for WeWork’s failed IPO?
If you believe the New York Times article, investors are gullible. Do you agree with this assessment? If so, why might this be the case?
Read the “Note”—the fine print—under the table, shown above. How do you interpret this information?
What should We do now to build credibility and save the business?
Third CEO Announcement This Week: Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo announced a new CEO: former BNY Mellon, Visa CEO Charlie Scharf. According to a Bloomberg report, Scharf is “quiet-ish” and known for being “direct and willing to clean house”
Scharf joins Wells Fargo as the company battles scandals beginning in 2016, when about 2 million fake accounts were discovered. Since then, the company has faced additional ethical questions and hasn’t fully recovered its image.
In its news statement, Scharf expressed his enthusiasm for the new job:
“I am honored and energized by the opportunity to assume leadership of this great institution, which is important to our financial system and in the midst of fundamental change. I have deep respect for all the work that has taken place to transform Wells Fargo, and I look forward to working closely with the board, members of the management team, and team members. I am committed to fully engaging with all of our stakeholders including regulators, customers, elected officials, investors, and communities.”
Scharf replaces General Counsel C. Allen Parker, who was appointed interim CEO, after Tim Sloan left in 2019.
Discussion:
How well did the Wells Fargo news statement meet its communication objectives?
The news statement doesn’t mention Wells Fargo’s troubled history. Should it? Why or why not?
Industry insiders expect Scharf to make significant changes in the organization. If you were considering a position at Wells Fargo, how would this news affect your decision?
Dorian News Conferences
Local officials are holding news conferences about the impact of Hurricane Dorian.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced mostly good news for the city, but he also addresses the terrible impact on the Bahamas.
Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis announced worse news: five fatalities. Since then, the number has risen to 30.
Discussion:
Compare these two presentations, particularly the content and tone. What differences do you notice?
How effectively did each government official convey the news?
What leadership character dimensions did they demonstrate?
Capital One's Response to the Breach
A hacker got access to 140,000 Capital One customers’ credit information and social security information, and about 106 million people were affected by other leaked information. Officials arrested Paige A. Thompson, who goes by “erratic” and was a former Seattle technology company software engineer.
In a bar chart, a BBC article puts this breach in context of others. Capital One’s press release describes the company’s quick response:
“Capital One immediately fixed the configuration vulnerability that this individual exploited and promptly began working with federal law enforcement.”
The release also includes a statement from Chairman and CEO Richard Fairbank:
"While I am grateful that the perpetrator has been caught, I am deeply sorry for what has happened. I sincerely apologize for the understandable worry this incident must be causing those affected and I am committed to making it right."
In addition, as expected, the release includes information for customers, offers free credit monitoring, and provides an FAQ.
Discussion:
Analyze the press release. Consider the audiences, objectives, organization, tone, and so on.
How well does Fairbanks demonstrate humility in the press release? What other leadership character dimensions are illustrated? How well does he inspire confidence in Capital One?
Analyze the BBC chart shown here. What works well about the chart, and what else would be helpful to understand these breaches in context?