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 950: Badges

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“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

This past two weeks what we haven’t seen is the behind the scenes activities at the Olympics from the people who attended the games live.  We were fortunate enough to attend the Atlanta summer Olympic Games in 1996 and what happens is that there is a whole other economy that happens on-site with people bartering, trading and buying pins and badges for what events they attended and saw.  It’s fascinating as status us earned by amount and type of badges and pins accumulated.

scout merit badges

Companies have learned that “social status” is a powerful consumer force and a powerful motivator.  I read of the MacArthur Foundation’s work with HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Sciences and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) to create badges for proficiency of work, skills, trades and knowledge.  It could be interesting if indeed we do see these take hold.  Giving someone, anyone a way to be recognized for their achievements and advancements can be significant and it is worthwhile to explore how to use this concept internally and externally to our organizations.

We are challenged as believers to turn the concept of badges inside out.  Yes, we are to wear our armor of God, but that armor is only as good as what flows from inside of us out to others, who are watching and assessing how real and legitimate we are followers of Christ. Our badges that we are given come from the Holy Spirit and we learn that if the fruits of His spirit are not evident an growing that something isn’t right.  God gives us our own internal “badge” system to evaluate ourselves.  As we start this week, let’s read through the fruits of the Spirit to ensure that we are focused on what is right and best for us and consider the badges that others see us wearing.

Reference: Galatians 5:22-23 (New Living Translation)