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 623: The Elevator Lobby

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“And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of our Lord.”

I remember reading of the skyscraper in Manhattan that after it was completed and the people were moving into the building the building supervisor learned that there either weren’t enough elevators or the elevators moved too slowly. The complaints were constant and no one was happy. The tenants began to ask about how to get our of their leases. The building owners were beside themselves and couldn’t figure out what to do. So, someone came up with the idea of bringing in an organizational psychologist to understand the complaints and see what could be done to keep the people happy. After a few interviews the psychologist came back to the building owners with a solution that he felt would cost a few hundred dollars per floor. Grasping at any solution, they took his advice and after a simple change, over one weekend, all of the complaints went away and everyone was satisfied with the new elevators and building. I am sure as you read this you are wondering what would an organizational psychologist know about how to speed up an elevator and even if he did know something about it, how could he get it done so cheaply and quickly. The psychologist didn’t do anything at all to the elevators. All he did was recommend to the owners that they put floor to ceiling mirrors on all the walls of each elevator lobby and he said the problem would go away. And it did. The mirrors and how we look at ourselves and others provided just the mental distraction that was needed to make the extra waiting time seem short, not long.

We all, in one way or another, stand in the mirrored elevator lobby each and every day. Through our work, our attitude, our energy, our words and our actions, we reflect back to others and image that they will ponder, question and wonder about. Sometimes that reflection is pure and one that they project themselves onto. Other times, they may not like what they see so they look away. It’s important that we all remember that we stand in that proverbial lobby each and every day and what we mirror to others says way more than the words that come from our mouths. The real question is, are we reflecting a life that makes God proud and reinforces to others that we are striving to be a reflection of the life of our Savior. It’s worth a moment, right now, to ask yourself, what reflection will you be today?

Reference: 2 Corinthians 3:18 (New Living Testament)