Episode 76

Trust Elasticity: What Bends, What Breaks, What Bounces Back

Disruption does not have to break trust when leaders respond with clarity, care, and honesty during uncertainty.

Maartje van Krieken sits down with Kim Bohr, President and COO at SparkEffect, to explore how trust in disruption can either erode or strengthen based on leadership transparency and the choices leaders make under pressure. Kim shares insights from her research that connect trust directly to retention, reputation, and performance, while also unpacking how modern disruptors like AI and rapid organizational change shape trust inside organizations.

This episode examines why organizational resilience grows through curiosity, empathy, and consistent communication rather than perfection. It shows how leaders can turn moments of disruption into opportunities to strengthen trust and build more resilient organizations.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Trust In Disruption And Modern Leadership

03:36 Measuring Trust As A Strategic Business Asset

06:18 Technology, AI, And Leadership Transparency

09:35 Trust Dividends And Leading Through Micro Disruptions

11:59 Empathy, Imperfection, And Human Leadership

16:55 Warning Signs Of Trust Breakdown In Fast Growth Teams

22:29 Leadership Transitions And Organizational Resilience

Connect with Kim Bohr:

​​Download Free Leadership Tools on Trust and Disruption

Connect with Kim on LinkedIn

Visit the SparkEffect website

Tune in to the SparkEffect Podcast - Courage to Advance

Kim Bohr is the President & Chief Operating Officer at SparkEffect, where she leads the firm in helping executive teams navigate disruption without fracturing trust. With over 25 years of cross-functional leadership experience, Kim advises leaders on aligning strategy with human-centered practices that drive performance. Her approach centers around SparkEffect Trust Elasticity™, a well-researched framework designed to evaluate and fortify trust during periods of change, whether it be AI integration, leadership turnover, or restructuring.


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

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The Business Emergency Room: For Leaders Facing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity (VUCA)
Triage, Tools & Tactics to recover from or prevent business chaos in this VUCA business environment

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Maartje van Krieken

Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist, executive consultant, and your at host of The Business Emergency Room podcast, where growing businesses go when things get messy. With a career that began in frontier oil and gas and spanned war zones, boardrooms, and billion-dollar pivots, Maartje has spent over two decades helping organizations steer through chaos and come out stronger.
Now through her consulting firm, The Chaos Games, Maartje works with medium-sized businesses, especially those scaling rapidly or navigating uncertainty, to diagnose breakdowns in leadership, collaboration, and decision-making before they become business emergencies. Her signature approach blends practical triage, people-first strategy, and blunt Dutch honesty to help teams realign fast.

​The Business Emergency Room delivers high-impact insights for business leaders, board members, and investors who are tired of the symptoms, disconnection, friction, paralysis, and want the tools to fix what’s really going wrong. Maartje’s episodes cut through fluff with stories, frameworks, and metaphors that turn even the most complex chaos into something leaders can act on.
Maartje is based in New Orleans and speaks regularly on navigating organizational storms, building business resilience, and turning reactive firefighting into proactive leadership. Whether you’re scaling a business, running a team, or dealing with dysfunction, The Business Emergency Room is the place to find straight talk and smarter tools.