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 1430: Minority Reports

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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart;do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do,and He will show you which path to take.”

A few years ago I did some consulting with a very successful investment firm.  I was fascinated with their culture and how they made decisions.  They had a whole group of people whose job it was to create the alternative side of the argument and to defend that position as wholeheartedly and with the same amount of conviction as the other more popular and conventional position.  These “minority reports” would shoot holes in the majority and make them think twice before just going with what every body else was thinking.  It’s a tough job, especially if down deep you wonder if someone in the company will take offense that you are second-guessing them.  That is why in this organization the smartest and highest potential people had to do a tour of duty through this department.  It was brilliant of them and I’d dare to say that part of this firm’s success is that they take the time, energy and resources to get a full picture; good, bad and ugly, before they make a decision.  Too may organizations do just the opposite and let group-think rule and then ostracize, shun and remove those who have a dissenting point of view.

As believers, we live and work in the minority.  It’s not a bad thing and I don’t blame the government, other religions, popular culture, the media, or anyone else.  Jesus never said He was sent to be popular or to make us all the most popular or influential.  He set us out on a minority positioned mission, knowing full well that we would have to choose and sacrifice to stay on His narrow path.  I hear from believers that they feel beat down and marginalized in their faith and witness because of how hard it is the workplace today.  I agree, that it is hard, but it has always been hard, and it will, while we walk and work in this world,always be hard.  Harder today than yesterday?  I don’t know.  I remember one of my first real-world jobs welding in a shipyard for a summer.  Let me tell you, sitting under a hopper barge on a hot summer day with that crew and their habits, pressures and temptations, might have been harder than any moments I ever had in the workplace. That was 30 years ago, before anyone but God, me and those 20 other guys would know what I said, what I did, and what I believed.  The minority position is always hard, but it is what we are here to represent.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (New Living Translation)

*Thanks to The Daily from Crossroads Church for keeping this front and mind and the inspiration