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 1945: Team of Teams

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“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.”

There has been lots of writings and lots of discussions about the structure of the most effective team and team leadership.  In the corporate world most of us have experienced a career of “Command” structures.  Its a traditional structure with one person at the top of the hierarchy with a pyramid of reporting layers under each successive layers.  Also emerging are forms of teams like a “Command of Teams” where there is still a structure with a person at the top of the org chart but it is more that the teams report to that person versus just one person and those team operate among themselves.  And there is a “Team of Teams” where teams and people work most closely with those that they need to work at the time, and the organization is in a fluidity where the work drives where anyone person would work at any given time.  This is really hard to go and it takes a great deal of organizational and cultural maturity but when it does work it’s pretty cool.  We’ve probably all experienced some form of this when we were tasked with cross-functional work, but it not often enough and more companies should explore trying to get to a place where the organizational structure starts with what is most effective to get the job done.

Whoever heard of a true kingdom where the King didn’t need to rule with an iron scepter and imposed many restrictions and responsibilities to garner allegiance? All of history will tell us that this was the way, that is until the King was removed through force.  But, we serve a King who has given us a way to live and then invites us to follow Him.  And when we do, we are blessed with what is unimaginable.  So, why do we push back and fight against Him?  Why do we not live each day as if there is no other to be served?  Why do we work in a way that doesn’t lead others to see Him through us?  The answer lies only within us as we have all the choice to follow His commands, or to not do so.  He is inviting us to join His team today.  Are we accepting the invitation?

Reference: Luke 12:31 (New Living Translation)