Q&A with Chicago Blackhawks executives Danny Wirtz and Jaime Faulkner: What does ‘transparency’ look like? How patient will they be with the rebuild?

The Chicago Blackhawks aren’t counting on having a lot of success this season — or maybe for the foreseeable future — and one of their TV commercials says as much.

Their first ad this season, part of a new “Ready to Work” campaign, spells it out.

“They say rebuilds are hard, and make no mistake: This is a rebuild,” an actor says. “This is Chicago. We love ourselves a good rebuild. They once rebuilt the entire city after a fire so big, they’re still calling it great. Is it easy? No. But keep in mind, these are the same people who drink Malort by choice.

“So, yeah, rebuilds are hard — for other cities.”

Expect more commercials in that same vein this season.

“We’re more of the business of fun, so we wanted to not be so serious in our campaign,” said Jaime Faulkner, Hawks president of business operations. “And we wanted our fans to have fun with it.

“We’re getting pretty good feedback from our fans. I think they find it funny. You’re not going to please everybody. … Our avid fans remember a long time ago we used to put out funny things on YouTube, and I think it’s refreshing now that we’re going back to having some fun.”

Still, the Hawks’ stab at humor broaches an uncomfortable truth: The Hawks could be in for a long and rocky road back to respectability, and unlike the commercials, the product on the ice likely will be very hard to watch at times.

The campaign also serves as an example of the team’s attempt to be more transparent with its fan base. “Transparency” has been a buzzword in the organization in the last couple of years, and it’s a term fans are anxious to see if the Hawks live up to.

In the last couple of years, one event after another has spun Hawks fans’ heads.

First former general manager Stan Bowman denied the team was rebuilding, then he admitted it was a rebuild, then he engaged in a summer spending spree on Seth Jones, Tyler Johnson and Marc-André Fleury in a hurried try at a retool.

Running parallel to all of that, the Hawks were sued by former prospect Kyle Beach for negligence based on sexual assault allegations he made in 2010, which he said the Hawks covered up. The Hawks initially claimed the suit had no merit, then they hired a law firm to conduct an independent investigation, which found that it indeed had merit.

The Hawks ultimately cleaned house of several executives tied to the 2010 cover-up, including Bowman, and came to a settlement with Beach.

[ [Don’t miss] 4 things we heard from Patrick Kane, including the Blackhawks star’s reaction to Alex DeBrincat’s letter ]

Kyle Davidson carried on the business of hockey as Bowman’s successor, but even he threw fans for a loop when he traded beloved winger Alex DeBrincat before the draft after DeBrincat’s first All-Star season.

So it should be no surprise that when the Hawks talk about their renewed commitment to “transparency,” it elicits a few eye-roll emojis from some corners of social media.

The Tribune sat down Wednesday with CEO Danny Wirtz and president of business operations Jaime Faulkner and posed some questions about what transparency with the fan base looks like to them. (Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity or brevity.)

The Hawks have talked about being more transparent and accountable. What does transparency mean to you?

Wirtz: It’s to be clear with our fans, our partners, our employees about who we are and what we stand for and where we’re going. Another really important piece is to explain to people why we’re doing things. … “Transparent” doesn’t mean we completely open it up to all of our internal conversations, but it’s hopefully to share and bring people along, especially at this stage of the organization. There’s a lot of new things happening internally, there’s obviously a team that’s rebuilding on the ice, so this is a perfect time to bring people along, as opposed to standing behind marketing or something and just letting people kind of come to it on their own.

Faulkner: Another component of that is we celebrate when we get it right but be really honest when we get it wrong. And be clear about that, right? And be OK with that. … We may get it wrong in a commercial that people don’t like, and we’ll have to own that. What do we learn from that? … You can’t be fully transparent if you’re just putting out all the good things. You have to be really honest about the good and bad. And we fully intend to do that.

What does accountability look like?

Wirtz: So Jaime is accountable for the (business) decisions, Kyle is accountable for the hockey decisions and I’m accountable for it all coming together and hopefully getting it right. When there’s missteps, it’s taking ownership. … I don’t think we’re a punitive organization. … I’d actually rather our team take chances and take some risks and potentially fail than be fearful of repercussions of failure. And that’s a big cultural shift here.

How will you keep fans informed about the rebuild’s progress?

Wirtz: We’re open to everything. It’s the broadcast message, it’s also individuals, it’s talking to people in the hallway, it’s sitting with season ticket holders, sitting with our sponsors, sitting with media and walking through that. On this journey, things will become a little clearer as the hockey plan and path starts to become a little bit more concrete as it relates to timing in the future. … We’re fortunate that we have a lot of good channels to do that.

People still talk about the Hawks’ handling of Kyle Beach’s sexual assault allegation. How do you get the public to trust you with safeguards in the future?

Wirtz: We have independent groups and our legal counsel who work across different dimensions to ensure that all of our things are compliant. … And quite frankly, these are not for the public. We do this for our employees. There are people that work here that need to feel safe. People that need to feel that when they sign that handbook every year, they trust our organization. So I take nothing away from the public, but quite frankly, the trust needs to be with the people who work here and the people who play for our team. That’s the most important thing. And if we have that trust, I hope the public will follow us.

Faulkner: The important thing that I’ve learned coming into hockey is there are behaviors that are not acceptable when we talk about hockey culture, and nobody’s really willing to talk about what those behaviors are. You can’t just tell a player, “If you’re uncomfortable, go tell somebody.” (Or tell an) employee, “If you see something, say something.” We need to be really clear about what’s good behavior, what’s bad behavior, and then what you can do about that, whether you see it or you’re experiencing it yourself. And we’ve put a lot of time and attention into figuring out what that is, hiring people and putting them in the right positions that model that and lead by example and employees that feel comfortable enough to use their voices.

Wirtz: Another piece to this that I think is an important new addition to our organization: Outside of the procedural aspects is our mental health and mental performance department, led by (director of performance psychology) AJ Sturges. He came in almost two years ago now. And (mental performance coach) Pete Kadushin, both of (whom) focus on this area. … The workforce is dealing with a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety, all up to more serious issues. And for hockey teams, we must continue to normalize that function. … That creates a day-to-day door to walk through, it creates a resource to get help, not just at crisis mode but frankly the tough days you have. … So that’s an area we’ve invested in, it’s an area I think we’re really taking a leadership position across the league, and I think you’ll see more from us on that.

How much patience will you have for this rebuild? It’s Year 1 now, but what about when it’s Year 2 or 3?

Chicago Tribune Sports

Weekdays

A daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.

Wirtz: We’ll deal with everything as it comes. But what we need to see is improvement. We need to see (us) taking the right steps. You hear (coach) Luke (Richardson) talk a lot about those steps. You can’t shortcut and you can’t go to Step 5 when you haven’t done Steps 1 through 4, right? … That’s going to be part of the process of rebuilding. And just dealing with the adversity that naturally comes, there’s things that get thrown in your way. … We’re a planful organization, we’re going to think long term, but we also have to be realistic that the world shifts and moves around us on a daily basis.

So you have the patience that’s required?

Wirtz: I think so, especially if we’re seeing progress, if we’re seeing improvement, if we’re seeing the things that are indicators of their future success. And I actually think we’re building the kind of capabilities to be a little bit more predictive of that. Between metrics and the kind of data we’re able to see, we’re actually able to see indicators that show us that, in fact, we are moving in the right direction.

I asked Luke Richardson how transparency works between himself and management, specifically Wirtz and Davidson. What are your reactions to what he said: “I mean, it’s nice because when they’re not around sometimes, if things don’t go well, you start second-guessing and wondering. Like, that silence part is dangerous sometimes. And I think that kind of creeps in and makes it an unnatural environment.”

Faulkner: You have to have two ingredients, right? You have to know ultimately what’s the strategy, what’s the game plan, and every individual has to know how they fit into that. And then our job is to make sure they have every resource that they need to be able to deliver on their role in that.

Wirtz: Being a coach in the NHL, you know every team inevitably has sort of a rough patch, right? And what you don’t want is that rough patch to perpetuate a feeling of paranoia and everything’s going to change or the-other-shoe-is-gonna-drop kind of thing. That’s usually in those moments when you need to communicate more, be reassuring, reaffirm the plan, be supportive.