After one hundred episodes of watching organizations fail, Maartje van Krieken has identified the eight vital signs that were almost always present before the crisis hit.

To mark one hundred episodes, Maartje does something fitting: she pulls from the voices that have shaped the show and builds something new from them. Guests like Brent Hagan, Joe Bockerstette, Emma Collyer, Sumit Chowdhury, Mac Garghan, Elisabeth Vealey, and Holli Moeini all make an appearance, their insights woven into a framework that is bigger than any single conversation. The pattern across all one hundred episodes is not the crisis itself but what came before it. The signals were there. They just were not being read.

That framework is eight vital signs, borrowed deliberately from medicine. Are the same people in your organization always running to the rescue? That heroism is a fragile system held together by individuals who will eventually burn out or leave. How much energy goes into figuring out how to do the work rather than doing it? What conversations have been postponed for six months, a year, two years? Maartje also examines the signals that live at the edges: the outsider who last took a genuine look, the gap between the story a leader tells and what the numbers show, the board that has gone quiet not because it agrees but because it no longer knows what to ask, the strategic partnership where candor has been replaced by politeness, and the dead bodies every organization has but few cultures make it safe to name.

The question this episode leaves you with is simple but uncomfortable: how would you honestly answer each of these eight questions about your own organization right now?

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Eight Vital Signs Every Organization Should Be Monitoring

02:50 Heroics as a System Failure

08:55 The Conversations Leaders Keep Avoiding

15:08 When Your Numbers No Longer Match Your Story

21:10 Partnership Health and the Cost of Quiet Erosion

24:00 The Dead Bodies Every Organization Has But Nobody Names

Links

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Book your Business Stress Test Conversation Here: https://calendly.com/de_maartje/talk-more-25min

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

Visit The Business Emergency Room website

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

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