Join us for our installment of the Pacesetters Doing Business series featuring Mass General Brigham on August 7, 2025.
08/07/2025
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Virtual
The BIMA Summer Sizzler is a chance to network with your digital media industry peers from the agency, publisher, and adtech community!
08/14/2025
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Fenway Park
Join Boston’s leading educators and industry experts to explore career-aligned high school programs, in-demand workplace skills, and innovative school partnerships driving student success
07/17/2025
9:00am - 11:00am
Omni Boston Hotel Seaport
This program is in redevelopment. Click this page for DEI resources.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
In this highly interactive workshop with Strategic Career & Leadership Coach Carole-Ann Penney, you’ll define your professional identity and develop strategies to confidently navigate workplace dynamics.
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
Small businesses are the backbone of the Boston economy. Learn more about the resources available through the Chamber.
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For over 30 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
You get into work on a Monday morning after a great weekend in mountains camping with your family totally “off the grid.”
You’re set for a great day. Then you open your email and see an urgent message from your boss that your team screwed up with a client in a major way over the weekend. He wants to see you before 10 am in his office.
You pride yourself on great pre-planning and execution. Crisis management is not your strong suit.
What do you do?
I’m a former fire chief of twenty years turned executive leadership expert.
I found that a simple, 7-step process, that fire fighting professionals use all over the country, has been a hit with my business clients in helping manage crises.
It’s called “S SLEEVO.”
Here’s how it works:
1 – Size up
First, consider the actual current conditions. Get an honest perspective. What damage has been done? What else is going on in the company that might affect the outcome? What action can begin to change the results from the weekend for the better?
2 – Sufficient Help
What resources—people and equipment—do you need to address the issue properly? Do you what you need? Is your team able to take the actions needed to stop the bleeding and then over-deliver in a way that can satisfy the client and your boss? Who else do you need to help? What is the contingency if the issue is bigger than identified in the size up? How can you get what you need?
3 – Life Safety
What are the considerations for the safety and wellbeing of your customers, employees and your business? What safeguards are in place?
4 – Exposures
What if this fire spreads? Where could this issue end up? Is this issue from the weekend going to affect other clients?
5 – Extinguish
Put the fire out. In other words, gather what you have and know from steps one through four and deliver. Begin to extinguish the fire before you meet your boss and then let him know your plan for dousing the conflagration and follow up.
6 – Ventilate
Ventilate is the about removing of smoke, heat, and lethal gases. It’s about clearing out the aftermath of the crisis. What is your plan to deal with the toxic/interpersonal issues that arise? How do you take ownership and not personalize it? How do you move on?
7 – Overhaul
Make sure the fire is out, locating and snuffing out every last ember in order to prevent rekindling. Is the job done? Did you fully deliver what was promised? Has an evaluation taken place and processes put into place to prevent a future issue. Have the changes been communicated to all stakeholders? You don’t want to walk into the same situation next Monday morning.
And that’s S SLEEVO. It’s so effective that many new chiefs carry a laminated card with the acronym on it, so as to not miss any considerations.
Once you have the process down, it can be done in seconds. And it doesn’t apply only to large emergencies. It has applications to smaller sparks as well. Consider how this can be applied when an employee rushes into your office with a burning issue.
George Loan Baker is Partner and Executive Leadership Coach at innerOvation, LLC
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