Bad news seems to be following Uber Technologies Inc. around like a stray puppy these days, but on Tuesday Uber’s female board members turned toward the growing angry mob of Uber critics in an attempt to calm things down.

In a conference call, Uber board members Arianna Huffington (pictured), Liane Hornsey and Rachel Holt talked about matters of accountability, the much-criticized company culture, the search for execs as senior staff jump ship and also the more practical business of business performance and how to move forward.

According to reports, Uber had announced the conference call only a few hours before it happened, but during the 45-minute call the board members let it be known that the widely reported inner turmoil of the company was something that needed to be fixed immediately.

The first step, said Huffington, was finding a chief operating officer to help Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick. “It’s clear that both Uber and the entire ride-sharing industry would not be where we are today without Travis,” said Huffington, a man who lately has been criticized for his leadership in spite of his many successes.

In what almost sounded like a pitch, Huffington said the company was looking for a COO with “significant operational experience and who understands service-related businesses at a local and global scale; who can thrive in a hyper-growth company; and someone with the strength and smarts to work alongside a founder as a true partner.”

Her message? That a great leader will foment great ethics and harmony. And once again she said Uber’s days of hiring “brilliant jerks” was over.

Hornsey mirrored this in some ways, saying that what she had seen in her 11 weeks working with the company was a pervasive “cult of the individual,” a maelstrom of mostly male egos. She said not only is the company focusing its efforts on “diversity and inclusion” but also reaching out to prospective female staff after reports of the sexism and some sexually predatory male staff.

“We have already started the process of determining the behaviors that we want, contrasting them to what we have now,” said Hornsey. “That gap analysis will underpin all of our change activity.”

Holt also made some placating remarks that Uber had to “bring more humanity to the way we interact with drivers,” something for which Uber is not renowned. “We’ve underinvested in the driver experience and relationships with many drivers are frayed,” said Holt, adding that now it is time to “rebuild the love.”

In speeches that almost had the gravitas of an awards ceremony, the triad of board members certainly talked a good talk, and perhaps after a deluge of criticism lately, things for Uber can only get better.

Image: C2 Montréal via Flickr