Latest / Communication Breakdown / UnitedHealthcare CEO Murder Sends Shockwaves

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UnitedHealthcare CEO Murder Sends Shockwaves · Communication Breakdown

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to Communication Breakdown, a new podcast from the Observatory
• 0:07
  on Corporate Reputation.
• 0:09
  Thank you for joining us.
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  I'm Steve Dowling in Silicon Valley.
• 0:12
  And I'm Craig Carroll in New York City.
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  Each week we analyze how companies navigate the stories making headlines and how they
• 0:19
  sometimes fail to stay out of them.
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  This week we turn to an unsettling and tragic story that is rock the corporate world, the
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  shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson in Midtown, Manhattan.
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  Thompson, the leader of the country's largest health insurer, was murdered outside the
• 0:36
  company's annual investor meeting.
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  While the public focused mostly on the week-long manhunt for Thompson's killer, the health
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  insurance industry seemed to start taking security precautions, presumably for fear of
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  copycat attacks.
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  United Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield and CVS, which owns HETNA, pulled the names and
• 0:55
  photos of its top executives from their website.
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  In a statement following the shooting, United Healthcare said the company was "touched by
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  the huge outpouring of kindness."
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  But social media audiences were not so sympathetic.
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  Mocking Thompson's murder, laughing at the company's post on Facebook, and railing against
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  the corporate health care system.
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  Andrew Whitty is the CEO of United Healthcare's parent company, United Health Group.
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  He called Brian Thompson one of the good guys, who had a positive impact on American healthcare,
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  and Whitty encouraged his 400,000 employees to tune out the negativity, which he said does
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  not reflect reality.
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  But he also laid out the company's mission in a way that drew out more criticism when his
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  remarks were leaked to investigate reporter Ken Clippenstein.
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  Our role is a critical role, and we make sure that care is safe, appropriate, and is delivered
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  when people need it.
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  And we guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe care or for unnecessary care to
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  be delivered in a way which makes the whole system too complex and ultimately unsustainable.
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  Craig, we cannot lose sight of the fact that this man was murdered in cold blood.
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  His family and colleagues are grieving.
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  I think that a lot of people, when they heard that an insurance executive had been attacked,
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  immediately assumed that the motive was probably linked to discontent with our healthcare system
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  here in the United States, something everyone is aware of and almost everyone has firsthand
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  experience with, which is why Whitty's comments about unnecessary care landed poorly.
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  But it's hard to think of another public figure whose death was met not just with cynicism,
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  but apparently approval or at best in difference from so many commenters and not just on social
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  media.
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  So today we're going to talk about the crisis communications, both internal and external
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  that we've seen in the wake of this terrible attack and also the changes we might see in
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  the coming weeks and months, not just in the insurance industry, but possibly across corporate
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  America.
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  You're right, Steve.
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  The lack of empathy here in the public reaction is chilling and really speaks to the
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  disconnect between large companies, particularly in industries like healthcare and the general
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  public.
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  And it's almost as if the humanity of these leaders gets erased in the broader frustration
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  with the systems that they represent.
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  But this isn't just about public perception.
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  It's also a challenge for corporate communicators.
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  How do you craft a message that honors a tragedy like this while still addressing the underlying
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  anchor that people are feeling towards your industry?
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  And how do you do that without exacerbating the very divisions that can be putting your
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  leadership at greater risk?
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  This isn't just a PR issue.
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  It's a reputational and operational crisis that's going to have long term implications for
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  how companies and a number of contentious sectors apply or approach safety, transparency,
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  and communication.
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  Well, let's start with the operational part.
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  We count on communications leaders to be cool headed in these moments, which means simultaneously
• 4:00
  dispassionate about the situation so they can make rational, well informed judgments,
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  but also sensitive to the gravity and humanity of the moment to balancing that rational
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  calculation with a real honest sense of compassion.
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  Or if it helps, maybe you think of it in the reverse, you start from the compassionate
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  point of view thinking about the victims.
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  And you make sure you are able to check yourself from a more detached point of view.
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  And honestly, I think in these situations, when and out, you air on the side of humanity
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  and compassion.
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  I think this is a challenging moment.
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  I think it's one that has some potential to set presidents for public communications and
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  other things tied to the business and the public and society at a greater scale here.
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  For me, I know this moment requires empathy and humanity.
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  And I can't just imagine what the Chief Comps Officer is discussing with the CEO either
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  before the statement or during the statement or right after because this isn't to me just
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  about the humanity in recognizing that the company needs a moment to grieve.
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  You've still got to deal with the operational issues.
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  I mean, the immediate pain of the family, yes, that's huge.
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  The immediate pain of all the other employees and the people that are surrounding the CEO,
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  yes.
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  But at the same time, there's a lot of fear uncertainty and doubt among their customer base,
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  among their partners, among their peers who are thinking, hey, maybe this could happen
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  to us.
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  And also at the same time, there's people that are just not going to be as human here and
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  are thinking about it purely instrumentally in terms of what does this mean for the rest
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  of the world?
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  Yeah.
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  I think that is what is remarkable, maybe unique, about this situation for United Health
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  Care is is how they have had to navigate this really mean.
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  I would say callous lack of sympathy from such a broad swath of the public, at least
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  online, but also on television and in print, to make an announcement like they had to on
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  social media, on Facebook and have 77,000 people click the laughing emoji.
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  But there is no playbook for dealing with that.
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  I read their statements and I wondered if they were trying to address it a little bit on day
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  two, which was a more emotional message, thanking people as you mentioned for an outpouring
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  of support.
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  I think it was an attempt to find some light in the darkness that they really descended
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  on this story because of this uncharted, I struggled to find the words for mocking anyone
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  who is murdered like this.
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  We live in this age of hot takes and it's not serving us well in situations like these.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  I think this is the part where we have to recognize that there are several things at play.
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  Number one, this may not have been their channel choice to post something on Facebook.
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  Right now, there is also a lot of concern about whether or not companies or the media should
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  even be involved on Twitter or X.
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  But the reality is people are there and audiences are there.
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  Some of their customers might be there as well as all these antagonistic voices.
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  You may not be speaking out, sharing your point of view, but you need to be aware of some
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  of the people you care about are there and you need to be in tune with what they're thinking.
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  Even with the grief right now, I think the dangerous part is that it would be very easy
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  to either...
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  I wouldn't say run and hide, but you are grieving and you're recognizing that there's
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  a lot of callous voices out there and it's very easy to tune them out or to discount them
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  for their callousness and their insensitivity.
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  And I think as communicators, this is the part where we have to say, you know, look, we may
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  not be responding then right now, but they are speaking and they're saying something antagonistic
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  against our purpose, against our values, against what we're about and yet we're operating
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  in the same public sphere here.
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  We don't need to hear them out so that they feel better because now they've expressed their
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  point of view.
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  We need to know what their point of view is and we need to understand why they'd be willing
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  to put aside their humanity to speak so outrageously here and let that tip over into such callousness.
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  And okay, figure out, okay, what do we need to know that we maybe we weren't paying attention
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  to or weren't aware of that is now more public?
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  I think they took the right approach in focusing on their employees first in these situations.
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  The internal audience has to get top priority.
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  The CEO is almost always the highest profile person in the company, even if they don't know
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  him, everybody knew of him, hopefully respected him, had a level of familiarity with him and
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  those closest to him, whether it's 10 or a thousand people, they're grieving.
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  They are feeling raw human emotion and that needs to be acknowledged.
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  The loss needs to be acknowledged.
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  So I agree with you taking notes to the extent that the industry needs reinforcing as to why
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  customers and the general public are frustrated with them.
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  But I also think that in a situation like this, everybody needs to recognize that we're
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  in a window, a time window where there really, there aren't any appropriate comments except
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  about the tragedy and the people who are affected by it.
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  And maybe now, a week later, maybe that window is starting to open or starting to close
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  rather that it could be the time to start talking about broader issues.
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  But I don't feel it.
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  And especially since there has been so much negativity.
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  I think honestly, the people who would have really benefited from taking a pause are the
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  critics.
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  The hours and days immediately following an incident like this, which are filled with grief
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  and emotion, that is not the time.
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  And some really high profile people got caught up in this saying things like violence isn't
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  the answer, but people can only be pushed so far.
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  And those comments were walked back.
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  But people, they're getting caught up in the moment.
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  And we should point out that this was Senator Elizabeth Warren who made that answer patient,
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  that's what's significant about this comment.
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  She later just said there's never justification for murder, violence is never the answer
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  period.
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  So people know this.
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  They're just getting caught up in it.
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  And that's why I think it's important to have just that little bit of detachment, as a
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  comms leader when you're calling the shots or giving advice.
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  It's a balance that we again, we count on, comms leaders to make.
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  Yeah, but here's the thing.
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  Even though I agree to you that there is this window and now is not the time, nevertheless,
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  here antagonists took advantage of that window and they inserted themselves in.
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  And even though the dust may settle a week from now and then we can calmly respond to these
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  things here, the reality is for most of the public, they will have already moved on.
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  And they're going to remember seeing and hearing what what your critics had to say.
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  So part of it here is, yeah, okay, they're not responding fairly.
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  And it's very true that the industry probably knows everything that they're saying.
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  They don't need to respond.
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  Everything that they're saying during this window, yeah, been there done that.
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  We've heard all these critiques before, but it's very possible that for the larger public
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  that this is a moment where they are becoming a little bit more aware.
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  So it's it, you know, it presents the situation to where for the public for other audiences
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  that are, you know, they really don't have a dog in this hunt, right?
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  They're really not paying attention.
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  They saw a CEO was shot, murdered on the streets in New York, right?
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  And then they're hearing the repressed reports about the degree of pushback on social media,
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  countering the company.
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  So now there's two greater voices out there.
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  And you know, that's part of news is the reporting of controversy.
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  But now the public has two major voices out there, the company and these critics.
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  I'll make the strategic argument, which I feel a bit callous doing, but here you have an
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  industry that is under attack for being insensitive to human needs, to human emotions,
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  to people's health.
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  And in this moment, I think it makes sense to stay focused on the humanity to do that.
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  But I was saying earlier, default to the compassionate position because I would never suggest that
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  it be used opportunistically.
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  But if you are in an industry that is being criticized for being inhumane, showing your
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  humanity is not a bad thing.
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  Yeah.
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  So let's circle back to the league statement from the CEO, right?
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  Where he then addresses these critics.
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  How then do you respond as a communicator knowing that your CEO has made a statement that
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  we even though it's leaked, it's now out there in the public discourse.
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  And now you're having your respond to a statement that both touches on the humanity of the
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  situation, but also might be perceived as a little callous tenant of itself.
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  Well, this is, I think this sort of reinforces my point because he said a lot of things in
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  that statement to employees of video, which was leaked.
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  It was not intended for external consumption.
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  That's another thing that we should probably reinforce.
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  But he said a lot of things in there about Thompson, very complimentary things, but the thing
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  that the critics, that the external audience and I would suggest the press were primed
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  to pick up on was his defense of their business model effectively.
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  And so I think that that again shows that this is like now is not the time to be talking
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  about this.
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  There is this old saying.
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  There's a time and place for that.
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  And you know, it's not a time or place for two things.
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  One, this calling out your critics and two, talking about your business models.
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  That fair?
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  Yeah, I think engaging on that topic is not only insensitive to the grieving family and
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  employees who have just lost their leader, but it's clearly not a winning message is not
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  something that the public is looking to be sympathetic to you about it.
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  I'm not saying that that's what he was looking for, but as it's presented, the first thing
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  that people pick up on is the way he phrased it, preventing unnecessary care or whatever.
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  That type of messaging just is not a good look in this moment.
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  Yeah.
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  So there's so many different directions to go with this from here, right?
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  But let's start off with what are the implications here for other companies and what are some
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  of the adjustments that you see that other companies will likely make at this point?
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  Well, I think tighter security is going to be a given.
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  I think the other issue in the future as you're pointing out is it's going to be interesting
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  to see if the industry starts to change how it's communicating with customers, the healthcare
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  industry, communicating with customers and the public about its role.
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  And I know we talked about this earlier, but pulling the names of executives off the website
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  and taking the pictures down.
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  But that's a knee jerk response that we understand why a company would do that.
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  Just as there were security alerts, I think at the headquarters of the company, those are
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  either going to have to go back up in a different way or companies are going to have to figure
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  out how they are presenting themselves to the public while balancing the security risk.
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  I think the two things that we've got to be concerned with tied to the knee jerk response
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  is maybe over responding or maybe even pushing the narrative further about the divide between
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  senior level leadership and your employee base when they see you taking so much, so many
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  precautions, so much expense for the senior leadership team, right?
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  I think it just further pushes that narrative of the divide between employees and customers.
• 17:09
  And to the other about the websites, yeah, look, the photos have got to go back up there,
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  you know, and we've already seen so many other companies that have started to take their
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  photos down.
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  But you know, the thing is that does affect transparency to small signal, but it is a,
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  it's a behavioral indicator that that matters and these small things affect perceptions of
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  equity or perceptions of, you know, caring for your employees as much as you do for your
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  senior leadership and also just basic perceptions of transparency.
• 17:41
  Well, and especially in this industry, which deals with people's health, deals with people's
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  lives, you want to, you want to make sure people know that you care for lack of a better
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  term like you and maybe that sounds right, but what better way to demonstrate than by showing
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  that your company is run by humans.
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  You know that if you're taking the names and faces of people off the website, I'm not saying,
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  I'm reluctant to find fault or take issue with any of these decisions that they made in
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  the immediate aftermath.
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  But as a long term proposition, it just, you're right, it's not sustainable to not show the
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  human beings behind this company that deals with decisions of life and death.
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  It's hard to predict what the messaging decisions will be, but I would not be surprised
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  at some point in the not too distant future for the industry to try to take a different
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  tack.
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  But it's going to be hard to make that impactful if you still have, you know, lots of people
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  who are coming away from experiences, feeling like they or their loved ones were denied
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  coverage for procedures that they expected, you know, to be taken care of by their ensure,
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  to whom they play.
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  But pay premiums every month.
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  To your point earlier, there are operational factors here that go well beyond communications,
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  but I'm sure that there will be communications efforts and it will be really interesting
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  to see how the industry approaches that.
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  There's a few things here that I see out of this for other companies.
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  Number one is, I think the danger of being too narrow and how you think about your stakeholders
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  or the groups that matter to you and the groups that you matter to them, right?
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  This is not just about customers, it's not just about your employees, it's not just about
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  your supply chain or the communities where your employees work.
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  Right now, in real time, they are getting a taste of the wider range of voices that are
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  paying attention.
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  This is the story now of national significance and we have so many harsh voices out there
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  and we've already addressed them.
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  But people who may not be paying attention anymore to the tonality or to the criticisms
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  might remember some of the points, right?
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  Even though Senator Elizabeth Warren walked back her statement and recognized as that
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  was a little harsh, I don't think her policies are going to change.
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  I think being aware of the policy implications for healthcare in this country or for the fairness
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  and for this case, being held up as a case study or a lightning ride for other things for
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  the discontent between main street and wall street, if you will.
• 20:48
  Yeah, my main takeaway for comms leaders, comms practitioners at any level is that a situation
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  like this in any situation, but especially in a crisis.
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  The comms team, the first instinct is to project stability, continuity, whose successor,
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  reassure people, any operational disruption will be minimal.
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  But all those messages of themselves are tone deaf in the face of someone's tragic deaf
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  murder.
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  So there needs to be this balance I was mentioning earlier and you need to make sure you're
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  messaging with humanity, we're all human, we can all understand hopefully intuitively,
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  but if not, then maybe with a little nudge to remind us that there's an impact here that
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  goes beyond business.
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  So my my high level take on this is don't rush or don't be afraid to pause to collect your
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  thoughts and really read the room usually a little extra time costs you nothing, especially
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  if you are at the center of it, the press and the public they're waiting for you and they
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  will wait if you stretch it too long, you may pay a price, but in general, I think as a rule
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  of thumb, you probably have more time than you think and that that defaulting to the sympathetic,
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  compassionate human voice tone point of view is the right way to go.
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  You said two things that are really important one is the balance and two is the recognizing
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  that you don't have to do everything right now, the timing, the timing of it says like we
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  need to put first things first, we got to make sure your exercise here is balanced and
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  moderate and you're giving proper attention to both at the same time and not one at the
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  expense of the other.
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  I'm with you except let's just broaden our definition of of at the same time because
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  as I said earlier, I think there is a there is a window and you have to navigate by feel
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  on this.
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  Yeah, but there is a window in which I think as a company, you really don't have an obligation
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  to address any of that criticism certainly not this strident and call us.
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  Okay, that's the part I want to explore right because it's not about the addressing, I
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  agree.
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  This is not the time to be speaking and challenging them.
• 23:09
  Well, whether it's direct or indirect, I'm just saying as a topic, I think, but over
• 23:14
  over time, I think you're right that you do need to balance these things out, but there
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  will be a time and place for that debate over the role of insurers and whether their
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  profits are too great or whether they're treating people with sufficient compassion, but
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  I would argue that now is not the time.
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  I'm going to push back just a little here, right?
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  Because I understand you don't need to respond to them.
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  You don't need to address or concerns now and that's not the time for you to be speaking,
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  but operationally, communicatively, this is the time to still be listening and that's
• 23:51
  the part.
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  Well, for sure.
• 23:53
  No, no, absolutely.
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  And that I think is part of the sort of dispassionate, rational point of view that we depend
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  on communications leaders to play, but I think it's in, you're in listening and collecting
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  mode right now and then you have time to make decisions about how you're going to address
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  that indirectly, directly, communications, operational policy, whatever it's going to
• 24:17
  be.
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  But I again, go back to now is not the moment to make those decisions.
• 24:21
  Well, not the moment to make the decisions, not the moment to address.
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  There are some decisions you do have to make sure with just the listening side that you
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  stay at the table, you know, you may not be responding to them, but you need to be cataloging
• 24:34
  their thoughts and being prepared to respond later.
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  That part, you can't decide to do that later because once the moment's gone, it's too late.
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  Everybody, it'll already be a part of the psyche of everyone else is paying attention and
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  it may not be the moment that you care to respond at that moment.
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  It may not be in your top five, but you will have to recognize it was in the top five
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  or everyone else.
• 24:56
  You've heard it even if you weren't paying attention to it, but I want to circle back on
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  the balance metaphor a little bit more.
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  So the idea of the strength training here and dealing with both a communicational and
• 25:07
  operational at the same time is to say true.
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  We won't be engaging from a messaging perspective, but communicatingively, we will be responding
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  from a listening perspective and being aware of what's going on.
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  But here's the opportunity, I would say we have now, Steve, is that we're so focused
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  on talking points and understanding the issues and having our point of view out there and
• 25:35
  getting people on board with our point of view.
• 25:38
  The opportunity that I see here from an operational standpoint is to make better communication
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  channels for listening throughout the organization.
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  I don't mean just to your employee base, but getting all of the connecting the pipes across
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  the different functions of the business to make sure that whatever intel that they're
• 26:04
  gathering, whatever voice is that they're hearing from, that we might not normally have
• 26:09
  caught, but we know that material is coming in.
• 26:13
  I know it's already information overload, but the timing is such that from a crisis
• 26:20
  planning perspective, from a resilience perspective and preparing for the future, there's a lot
• 26:27
  coming at you and anything that you can do to improve your ability to capture it and
• 26:34
  even if you're responding later.
• 26:36
  I of course think that data collection throughout this is important.
• 26:41
  I just, I'm making an assumption here, but I feel pretty confident in making it.
• 26:47
  The complaints and the criticisms are not going to be news to these companies.
• 26:54
  They've got to be aware because they've heard it before.
• 26:56
  I think what makes this moment powerful in a very unfortunate way is that it seems to
• 27:03
  be a galvanizing moment for the critics and where that goes, we don't know.
• 27:08
  It is a galvanizing moment.
• 27:10
  It's a lot stronger now, but the part that the danger of just relying purely on tonality
• 27:15
  of been there done that hurt at all before is that right now there are ripple effects.
• 27:21
  Right now it is a cascading through other networks.
• 27:26
  It's cascading through other sectors of your stakeholder base through your communities
• 27:33
  and through Washington, through your supply chains of being aware of the degree that it
• 27:39
  is galvanized right now.
• 27:41
  I think the danger is recognizing when you start to have new voices at the table to the point
• 27:46
  that it can affect future safety, the legitimacy or the relationships that your company has,
• 27:56
  both among its customer base, but also with Washington.
• 28:00
  But also I'm going to say from a generational perspective of like being a fair and responsive
• 28:06
  corporate citizen in this country.
• 28:10
  The question I guess then is does this galvanized anger actually advance the cause of the critics?
• 28:19
  I'm not entirely sure that it does.
• 28:23
  If there's a benefit, if you will, to the critics, it's just awareness.
• 28:29
  It's just an awareness that people who are frustrated with insurance companies are not alone
• 28:35
  and that it could possibly draw them together.
• 28:40
  It's hard for me to get away from the notion that a lot of this is happening for the wrong
• 28:46
  reasons and that's because a man was killed.
• 28:49
  You know what I'm curious about, Steve, is why in light of companies speaking out on
• 28:54
  so many other social issues, why companies are not speaking out about the instability of
• 28:59
  the moment?
• 29:00
  I think that it's entirely appropriate.
• 29:05
  It's interesting to look at the other voices.
• 29:08
  You set aside United Health Care.
• 29:10
  They're dealing with grief.
• 29:13
  But would it be appropriate for others to say this is not the way we're going to settle
• 29:18
  our disputes?
• 29:20
  I think that would be a really good approach.
• 29:22
  Again, there's got to be some indication that it's genuine and that there is a willingness
• 29:31
  to hear people out and at least explain in a more human sense and show the benefit that
• 29:39
  these companies feel they bring, which Witty was trying to do.
• 29:45
  He told his team to be proud of what they do.
• 29:50
  I think this is to a point we just touched on briefly earlier.
• 29:56
  It's most powerful when you can say the same thing internally as externally.
• 30:00
  I think for Witty, that would have meant maybe moderating the comments about unnecessary care
• 30:11
  or whatever and being a little more considered on the value that they believe the company
• 30:19
  brings.
• 30:20
  I know we're close to the time here.
• 30:23
  I just want to think about some other things that we could add here.
• 30:26
  I'm just wrapping up, being very clear about things that companies could be doing or learning
• 30:32
  from this moment or what many of them are already doing.
• 30:35
  We know that many are putting a focus right now on heightened security protocols and whether
• 30:40
  it's increased security offices or shareholder events.
• 30:44
  That's certainly real.
• 30:45
  I think it closing.
• 30:46
  I don't know.
• 30:47
  I just think we're going to be looking at in the future is this going to be held as a
• 30:54
  case for or an exemplar for how we think about just segments of society having a growing
• 31:03
  distrust in corporate institutions, particularly in industries like healthcare.
• 31:08
  The second thing is just understanding what are the potential, cultural and societal implications
• 31:14
  here?
• 31:15
  I mean, one thing I can already see just in terms of the voices that have played out on
• 31:19
  social media and news reporting with these other voices is that this is eventually
• 31:24
  going to be a case study on the further divide between Wall Street and Main Street and the
• 31:30
  divide between senior level management and the rank and file of their employee base.
• 31:39
  Is a really difficult topic.
• 31:40
  It's going to take some interesting turns.
• 31:42
  I think we both have a lot of sympathy for everybody that's affected in this story this
• 31:48
  week and appreciate the conversation.
• 31:51
  That is our show for this week.
• 31:53
  We want to thank Sean P. Neal and the people forward network for making our podcast possible.
• 31:58
  If you'd like to tell us what you think or if you have a topic you'd like to suggest
• 32:02
  for our show, we would love to hear from you.
• 32:04
  Our email address is podcast@ocrnetwork.com.
• 32:09
  Communication breakdown is a production of the Observatory on corporate reputation.
• 32:13
  I'm Steve Dowling and I'm Greg Carroll.
• 32:15
  Thanks for listening.
• 32:16
  We'll be back next week.
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