The Business Emergency Room Podcast with Maartje van Krieken

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Host 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

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Rising from Ground Zero: Crisis, Grief, and the Leadership That Transforms

November 4, 2026

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 9/11

04:41 Decisive Action and Decision-Making Under Pressure

11:37 Balancing Grief and Operational Continuity During a Crisis

16:54 From Crisis Response to Long-Term Organizational Recovery

20:11 Why Outside Expertise Matters in Crisis Management

21:45 Leading Organizational Change When There's No Going Back

27:17 Supporting People Through Grief and Loss

29:29 Resilience vs. Healing: Why Crisis Recovery Takes More Than Bouncing Back

Links

Gregory 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 BOOK

Rising from Ground Zero: 9/11 and the FDNY’s Path through Crisis to Transformation

Publication Date: August 31, 2026, Publisher: DeGruyter Brill

Written with a 3rd author not on this episode, André Kotzé, CEO of AirtimeBA and an executive coach

Rising From Ground Zero

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Host 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

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When to Walk Away: Six Signs It’s Time to Stop

October 28, 2026

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 Business

03:00 Six Signs It's Time to Exit a Business

19:00 The Hidden Costs of Keeping a Failing Business Alive

23:00 When Leadership Becomes the Obstacle to Business Growth

27:30 How to Know When to Quit or Keep Fighting

29:00 How to Exit a Business Without Damaging Your Reputation

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

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Connect with Dr. Grant on LinkedIn

Host 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

Open Audio Episode Page

You Think It’s a Personality Clash. It Isn’t.

October 21, 2026

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 Friction

09:56 The Zero Sum Illusion

19:51 Recognizing and Addressing Imaginary Colleagues

29:58 Building Bridges in Leadership

Connect with Dr. Grant Ballard-Tremeer:

The Zero-Sum Illusion

Dr. 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:

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Host 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

Open Audio Episode Page

The Danger of Drifting: Why Businesses Fail in Volatile Times (REPLAY)

October 14, 2026

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 Storms

02:57 Understanding Inertia in Leadership

05:53 The Cost of Inaction

08:46 Cultivating a Culture of Decisive Action

12:03 Enhancing Situational Awareness

15:08 The Importance of Communication and Collaboration

18:00 Seeking External Support

21:11 Steering Through Chaos

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube