The Business Emergency Room: For Leaders Facing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity (VUCA)

What does it take to lead when a crisis makes returning to normal impossible?When the FDNY lost 343 firefighters on September 11, 2001, the department still had to protect New York City while dealing with the loss of colleagues, friends, and senior leaders. The years that followed changed how the FDNY prepared for major incidents, worked with outside experts, and supported its people through grief.In this conversation, Maartje van Krieken welcomes retired FDNY Captain Paul Brown and leadership expert Gregory P. Shea, coauthors of Rising from Ground Zero: 9/11 and the FDNY's Path Through Crisis and Transformation. They share how the department's culture of decisive action helped firefighters respond when traditional command structures collapsed, why acknowledging grief was critical to maintaining trust and purpose, and how accepting outside expertise changed the FDNY's approach to crisis management.The conversation raises a difficult distinction. Getting through a crisis doesn't mean an organization or its people have recovered from one.Paul and Gregory explain how the FDNY learned to work differently after 9/11, from trusting firefighters to make decisions on the ground to accepting outside expertise and changing how the department prepares for future crises. Business leaders often focus on getting things back to normal after a crisis. But as the FDNY's experience shows, returning to the way things were isn't always possible, or even the right goal.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Introduction: FDNY Leadership Lessons From 9/1104:41 Decisive Action and Decision-Making Under Pressure11:37 Balancing Grief and Operational Continuity During a Crisis16:54 From Crisis Response to Long-Term Organizational Recovery20:11 Why Outside Expertise Matters in Crisis Management21:45 Leading Organizational Change When There's No Going Back27:17 Supporting People Through Grief and Loss29:29 Resilience vs. Healing: Why Crisis Recovery Takes More Than Bouncing BackLinksGregory P. Shea is a Senior Fellow at the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management. Lead author of Leading Successful Change: 8 Keys to Making Change Work and Your Job Survival Guide. His writing has appeared in Harvard Business Review and the California Management Review. Paul Brown is a retired New York City Fire captain and educator. A third-generation firefighter, Brown spent over thirty years as a first responder. While a member of the FDNY Incident Management Team, he deployed to numerous disasters and wildfires throughout the nation. He speaks regularly on managing crises, high-stakes decision making, and organizational change.ABOUT THE BOOKRising from Ground Zero: 9/11 and the FDNY’s Path through Crisis to TransformationPublication Date: August 31, 2026, Publisher: DeGruyter BrillWritten with a 3rd author not on this episode, André Kotzé, CEO of AirtimeBA and an executive coach Rising From Ground ZeroConnect with Maartje van Krieken:Connect with Maartje on LinkedInVisit The Chaos Games Consulting websiteVisit The Business Emergency Room websiteSubscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTubeSubscribe to Maartje’s SubstackHost Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Some leaders know when a business is no longer worth saving. The harder part is deciding to walk away.Why do leaders stay too long? And when does determination start doing more harm than good?In this episode of The Business Emergency Room, Maartje van Krieken examines six situations where walking away may be the smartest business decision. From broken business models and irreparable relationships to companies that consume more value than they create, she explains why even the most dedicated leaders can't fix everything. And sometimes, the hardest truth to face is that the leader has become the obstacle.For business owners, executives, board members, and investors, knowing when to leave requires the same judgment and courage as knowing when to stay. Maartje shares how to recognize when a turnaround is no longer realistic, have difficult conversations before a crisis forces them, and make an exit that protects people, value, and professional credibility.Because knowing when to walk away may be one of the most important leadership decisions you'll ever make.Episode Breakdown:00:00 When to Walk Away From a Failing Business03:00 Six Signs It's Time to Exit a Business19:00 The Hidden Costs of Keeping a Failing Business Alive23:00 When Leadership Becomes the Obstacle to Business Growth27:30 How to Know When to Quit or Keep Fighting29:00 How to Exit a Business Without Damaging Your ReputationConnect with Maartje van Krieken:Connect with Maartje on LinkedInVisit The Chaos Games Consulting websiteVisit The Business Emergency Room websiteSubscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTubeSubscribe to Maartje’s SubstackHost Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction.Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

How much time and momentum do leadership teams lose to conflicts rooted in assumptions rather than actual disagreements?Maartje van Krieken sits down with Dr. Grant Ballard-Tremeer, author of The Zero-Sum Illusion, to examine the psychological patterns that keep leaders stuck. Grant introduces the “imaginary colleague,” the version of someone we create in our minds based on past frustrations and judgments. Under pressure, these assumptions can turn ordinary disagreements into entrenched conflicts that erode trust and stall progress.Why do leaders become so invested in defending their own perspectives? And how can genuine curiosity and empathy help break the cycle?Grant shares practical ways to recognize these patterns, challenge assumptions, and approach difficult conversations with greater understanding. For leaders dealing with strained relationships or organizational gridlock, Grant offers a practical starting point for questioning assumptions and having more productive conversations.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Understanding Leadership Friction09:56 The Zero Sum Illusion19:51 Recognizing and Addressing Imaginary Colleagues29:58 Building Bridges in LeadershipConnect with Dr. Grant Ballard-Tremeer:The Zero-Sum IllusionConnect with Dr. Grant on LinkedInDr. Grant Ballard-Tremeer is an advisor, entrepreneur, and author who helps executive teams navigate high-stakes conflict and organisational gridlock. As the founder of London-based consultancy E Co., he has spent over two decades guiding international teams through complex, multilateral challenges. In his book, The Zero-Sum Illusion: An Actionable Toolkit to Stop Conflict Winning in Life, Work and Society, Grant tackles the root drivers of team dysfunction, including the "Imaginary Colleague" - the tendency for senior leaders under pressure to manage threatening mental caricatures rather than the actual person across the table. He equips executives to dismantle these cognitive distortions, curb executive attrition and passive-aggressive meetings, and act as thermostats that actively set the climate for high performance.Connect with Maartje van Krieken:Connect with Maartje on LinkedInVisit The Chaos Games Consulting websiteVisit The Business Emergency Room websiteSubscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTubeSubscribe to Maartje’s SubstackHost Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction.Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The most expensive decision a leader can make during a crisis might be the one they keep putting off.When uncertainty hits, the instinct to wait for things to settle can feel like the responsible choice. But what happens when the market keeps moving and your business doesn't?Maartje van Krieken is revisiting this solo episode of The Business Emergency Room because the challenges she discussed when she first recorded the episode in April 2025 have become even more relevant. Business disruptions are coming faster, and the cost of leadership inertia is becoming harder to ignore.Drawing from her experience as a business crisis expert and yacht skipper, Maartje examines why leaders freeze under pressure and how waiting for certainty can put an organization at greater risk. How do you make smart decisions without all the facts? And how do you keep your team moving when the path forward is unclear?From recognizing early warning signs to making decisions with incomplete information, Maartje shares practical ways to lead through uncertainty. She explains why declaring a clear direction matters before you have every answer, and how bringing different teams together helps leaders identify what they know, what they're missing, and where to act next.When conditions are unpredictable, standing still may be the riskiest move of all.Episode Breakdown:00:00 Navigating Business Storms02:57 Understanding Inertia in Leadership05:53 The Cost of Inaction08:46 Cultivating a Culture of Decisive Action12:03 Enhancing Situational Awareness15:08 The Importance of Communication and Collaboration18:00 Seeking External Support21:11 Steering Through ChaosConnect with Maartje van Krieken:Connect with Maartje on LinkedInVisit The Chaos Games Consulting websiteVisit The Business Emergency Room websiteSubscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTubeSubscribe to Maartje’s SubstackHost Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction.Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Your business usually tells you something is wrong long before the numbers catch up.Customers go quiet. Referrals slow down. Sales cycles stretch. Teams start questioning the dashboard. These signals may seem small, but they often point to a bigger problem that leadership has yet to name.John “JR” Ross joins Maartje van Krieken to talk about how leaders can read the market more clearly and catch trouble earlier. Drawing on his experience at PepsiCo, PosiGen, and JDR Growth Advisory, JR explains why customer behavior can reveal problems long before they reach the boardroom.Where should leaders look first? Often, the answer is in the customers who have not left but are becoming less engaged. Their behavior can expose weaknesses in the value proposition, customer experience, product, distribution, or the way the company understands its market.Those signals can reveal internal problems too. Are leaders aligned on the biggest issue to solve? Does everyone trust the data? Are teams working in silos when the real problem crosses departments? Growth can hide these cracks for a long time.The takeaway: pay attention earlier. Talk to the customers who are quietly disengaging, look closely at the data your team no longer trusts, and act on what you learn before the cost of waiting gets higher.One simple question can reveal a lot: Who is your company’s most successful customer, and would every team give you the same answer?Episode Breakdown:00:00 Customer Silence as an Early Warning Sign05:31 How to Spot Market Signals Before a Crisis10:09 Leadership Alignment and the “Room Problem”14:30 What Happens When Leaders Stop Trusting the Data18:53 The Cost of Delayed Business Decisions31:08 How to Identify Your Most Valuable CustomerConnect with John Ross:Connect with John on LinkedInSubscribe to John’s SubstackJohn D. Ross, who goes by ‘J.R.,’ has spent twenty years in rooms where the numbers stopped cooperating for growth brands.At PosiGen he led growth and strategy while the company scaled to 36,000 customers across 15 states and $375M in home services revenue. Before that, nearly a decade at PepsiCo, including Global Director of Customer Partnerships and Chief of Staff to the CMO. Today he runs JDR Growth Advisory out of New Orleans, serving as fractional CMO to growth stage companies between $5-30M in ARR.His work starts with a diagnosis, not a pitch. Most leaders who call him believe they have a marketing or communications problem. What they usually have is a room problem: three smart people with three different theories, a dashboard nobody trusts, and one GTM question nobody will say out loud. Confusion inside a growth stage business is never harmless. It shows up in CAC before it shows up in the board deck.He has coached 60+ founders through the Tulane Innovation Institute and The Idea Village, and speaks at SXSW and New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. In 2027, J.R. will begin teaching at Tulane University a class focused on “Strategies for a Career in Entrepreneurship”.Connect with Maartje van Krieken:Connect with Maartje on LinkedInVisit The Chaos Games Consulting websiteVisit The Business Emergency Room websiteSubscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTubeSubscribe to Maartje’s SubstackHost Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction.Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm