People Don’t Break Businesses; These Five People Patterns Do

Every business emergency has a backstory, and it almost never includes a single person who set out to cause harm.

Maartje van Krieken has spent over twenty years walking into organizations mid-crisis, and the pattern she keeps finding surprises people every time. The cause is rarely a villain. Usually a good, capable person lands in the wrong role, holds onto a solution no longer fitting the problem, or sets a pace nobody sustains, while the organization reorganizes around the dysfunction instead of naming it.

In this episode Maartje breaks down five specific patterns she sees again and again: the accidental manager promoted past their skill set, the person the whole team has learned to work around, the specialist who never adapted to working across functions, the leader married to a solution that worked somewhere else, and the high performer whose pace quietly burns out everyone trying to keep up. None of these require bad intentions. What do they cost when nobody says anything?

Maartje makes a case that these patterns are rarely random. They form because organizations reward the wrong things for long enough that the dysfunction becomes invisible, or worse, expected. The turn comes when the cost of staying quiet outweighs the conversation you have been avoiding.

If you recognize any of these situations in your own organization, this episode gives you language for naming them and a real starting point for what to do next.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Real Cause of Business Emergencies

04:10 The Accidental Manager Problem

09:45 The Person Everyone Manages Around

15:50 When Experts Can't Cross Functions

22:15 Married to the Wrong Solution

27:40 The Pace Setter Burnout Trap

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

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