Unthinkable but not unforeseeable

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I’ll never forget where I was when I learned about the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Eating breakfast after a Wednesday morning workout, I was checking headlines on X. I couldn’t believe my eyes and immediately turned on the television. After flipping from network to network, the former TV reporter in me wanted to learn all facts available at what was then approximately three hours post-shooting. My next gut reaction was to text a screenshot of the headline to one of the C-suite executives I coach and who has become a friend. Knowing he is regularly in New York City with his CEO, I couldn’t help but think about the what-ifs of the unthinkable ever happening to one of them.

The sad part of the ongoing investigation is how this could be reality on any given day in any given city in the United States of America. You’ve seen headlines about gun control. You’ve likely read messages on various social media platforms condemning the health insurance industry and executives like Thompson. Unfortunately, humanity flushes out of people’s systems when they face their own grievances about life events. No matter your economic status, health care in the U.S. is a confusing road. But that’s for another column.

For now, I would like to share reactions and insights from two current CEOs and two former C-suite executives across health care, banking, e-commerce and higher education with whom I’ve spoken in recent days. I will also share crisis prevention best practices through my lens as a crisis strategist. As we say on my podcast, “The Crisis Files,” it’s not a matter of if but when crisis will rock your world.

“This is a wake-up call for how public the role of CEO is,” Diane Pearse, a Chicago-based corporate board member and former CEO, told me. “It is easy to forget that not everyone is your friend and that senior leaders are more visible and vulnerable.”

As she prepares for one of her own corporate board meetings this week, she knows the topic of security will come up. Her board “talks about enterprise risk management all the time.” After this tragedy, she told me she’s going to also put a greater emphasis on emergency succession planning.

Blaze Credit Union CEO Dan Stoltz is also in an industry where any customer or end-user feels their complaint should go straight to the top. He told me even though his “goal is to make every customer happy, some complaints get escalated.” He currently has no personal bodyguard. Blaze usually only hires security for annual meetings when several thousand people are in attendance. Stoltz said the killing of Thompson gives him and other CEOs he’s been in touch with since the tragedy pause. Many civilians and security pros are speculating the shooter had a grievance over a claim denial. In searching for a reason for the unthinkable, Stoltz said, “for customers that ‘no’ is a disrupter to them.” He and his team are now discussing their own future protocols.

A CEO friend in the higher-education space said the first thing she thought about was the rest of Thompson’s staff and how this is a workplace safety issue. How might this affect her future decision-making for herself and her team? “There will be a bit of a cloud that permeates personally, professionally and emotionally,” she said, at least for a while. She added that other leaders will wonder just as she does: “Are decisions I am making going to make others less safe?”

The reverberating effects of Dec. 4 in New York City will linger. I often say communication is the foundation and umbrella for everything we do. As organizations all over Minnesota, the country and the world evaluate their own safety protocols and brand identities, I recommend a three-part crisis prevention/crisis management approach:

In times of crisis, swift communication is always preferable — even if message number one is more about heart than head. The facts will show themselves, but you only have one shot to be the first to control your own narrative. My hope is brands everywhere will take lessons from the unthinkable, but sadly not unforeseeable, death of Brian Thompson. In his memory, let us not allow this to go down as a black swan event on the tapestry of American business life.