I've reread the CEO's employee letter three times now and it just pisses me off more and more. He's just saying "I too am upset at the unfair bad press we're getting over a paying customer we chose to eject from his seat." The lesson he and United are going to take from this won't be "we need to find better ways of scheduling planes and crew and finding volunteer bumps" but rather "we need to find ways to stick with our status quo but not have videos of passengers dragged down the aisle." I agree with his declared support for employees but am frustrated at his lack of humility. This is a leadership failure, and I don't think he knows it.
I'm ok defending the employees. Each of them did as they were told and trained to respond. I know that was a defense rejected at Nuremberg, but I think it's fair here. But I have no defense for United. They failed to see that the steps they trained their employees to take could be seen by passengers and the public as hostile to customers under some circumstances. And when faced with a negative public response, they're still failing to see any blame rests with them. I took root cause analysis training last summer. The CEO's letter suggests the root cause is the passenger's belligerence. But that isn't the root cause.