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 1290: Teflon and Velcro

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“Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky knees.”

Is your organization filled with Teflon or Velcro?  What do I mean with that question?  Teflon organizations don’t let negatives get them down.  They don’t allow the comments of others to stick, but instead get the meaning across and then roll off.  These are cultures where those from the outside can’t understand how plainly and sometimes bluntly people can speak the truth.  These cultures can also be ones that move faster with less friction. The downside is that positive comments can also roll off too fast and should stick a little longer.  Velcro cultures are just the opposite.  Everything sticks and nothing is easy to move.  One small comment can be debated and fretted over forever and then everything gets jammed up.  Funny thing about a Velcro culture is that the negatives still stick way more than the positives. The positives, are almost like the Teflon culture in that they get drowned out and ignored quickly, because there are so many negatives sticking around.  Which is your culture?  Which are you supporting inside of the culture?

As ones who are striving to bring glory to God in our work, to bring purposed working to life, we can’t be people of Velcro.  We have to be encouraging, optimistic, hopeful, positive and uplifting in our demeanor and spirit.  If we aren’t then we are like the ways of the world and we have nothing to stand with as our example of the love, grace, mercy and hope of Christ. Let’s check ourselves today and be sure that we have on our Teflon and not our Velcro as we finish this week.

I realize for many of you, today will be the last day of work before Christmas.  Purposed worKING will be here Monday the 23rd and then off to celebrate Christmas for the rest of the week.  For those checking out today, Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!  May it be the best Christmas yet for you!

Reference: Job 4:4 (New Living Translation)