As the pace of digital change accelerates, how should leaders guide their organizations to stay ahead of disruption? In this episode of Partnering Leadership, author John Rossman makes the case that betting big on transformation is essential, though risky.
Drawing on his experience spearheading Amazon's bold expansions, Rossman argues that the coming era of "hyper-digital" will necessitate even bolder moves than we've seen.
In the conversation, John Rossman lays out a playbook for leading change with the same fearless spirit of innovation embodied by pioneers like Bezos, Musk, and Jobs. His new book, Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era, offers tools and frameworks to drive clarity, speed, and calculated risk-taking in your team. Listen as Rossman shares insider tips on writing focused memos, rapidly testing central assumptions, and clearly communicating to carry stakeholders through uncertainty.
You'll learn tangible systems to define the problems worth attacking and to design minimal viable tests that reveal which bold solutions show the most significant promise. Rossman also prescribes remedies for the cultural obstacles that often sideline transformative thinking. Get actionable methods to investigate multiple futures, facilitate critical debate, and budget in stages rather than over-committing.
In an exponential era where leaders must think big while mitigating existential risk, Rossman delivers the wisdom needed today to build resilient, adaptive organizations ready to lead the future.
In the episode, you will learn:
- How to frame your boldest ideas as "Big Bets" to spark smarter experiments
- Ways to accelerate and test transformational initiatives before overcommitting
- How Jeff Bezos's "Day 1" outlook drives fearless innovation
- How writing memos instead of slide decks uncovers flaws and misalignments
- Why Simon Sinek says leaders repeating messages drives progress
- How to balance dream-big thinking with de-risking core assumptions
- How to run small tests that reveal which big bets deserve doubling down
Connect with John Rossman
Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era
John Rossman Website
John Rossman LinkedIn
John Rossman Partnering Leadership episode on The Amazon Way
Connect with Mahan Tavakoli:
Mahan Tavakoli Website
Mahan Tavakoli on LinkedIn
Partnering Leadership Website
Partnering Leadership