Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 1962: Holacracy

purposed worKING No Comments

“Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

If you haven’t read or heard about “Holacracy”, then keep open ears and eyes because you might hear more about it soon as the movement begins to move across corporate America.  Tony Hsieh at Zappos has been working on it for almost two years and many are waiting to see what the results will be.  Holacracy is an organizational structure where there aren’t any bosses.  What, no boss?  Yep, no bosses, no hierarchy, and death to the organizational chart.  What it does involve, that some might not like, is a number of very specific meetings that process the work.  This part is not easy.  But even harder is changing the way we are programmed.  We start life being parented, and then go to school to be taught (along with grouped and led), likely then have part-time jobs and internships that are the antithesis of Holacracy. And then we run into Holacracy.  It’s not easy to unlearn what is part and parcel of how we have been programmed.  But, it will be interesting to see if we hear more about Holacracy.  You’ve now been exposed, so go take a look and see what you think.

I was reflecting on Holacracy as I thought about what I hear from people who I invite to church.  Many people’s introduction to church has been through the experience of a very hierarchical structure, with some mainstream religions teaching that the experience and conversation with God must go through another person like a Priest, who forgives sin.  This is not the most positive of experiences for many. I am a church guy so I respect spiritual authority, and the best pastors and spiritual leaders that I have encountered approach the Kingdom of God as a Holacracy with each of us being additive to the greater that is God’s Kingdom.  Within a Holacracy, there is much required of each of us to do our part to further a mission, or in our part, the Great Commission.  So, we must ask of ourselves, what are we doing to play our part?

Reference: Matthew 28: 18-20 (New Living Translation)