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 175: Whiteboards

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“In the beginning, God created…” Or we could say, in the beginning, God went to his whiteboard and created. What a vast whiteboard God had that He was able to use and create this world for you and me. Nearly every workplace today has a whiteboard. In some places I have worked we designed the entire conference rooms with floor to ceiling whiteboards. Whiteboards are great for meetings when people are brainstorming and being creative. The board and the pen should be available to everyone and when the idea comes we can get it up on the board, look at it, massage and revise the thought and then even just as important, be able to communicate that idea to others. On more than one occasion, I have had an idea and written on a whiteboard and then brought other people into the room to explain what I was thinking. Whiteboards are a great place for creativity and a great communication tool. However, I have noticed that not everyone feels comfortable taking the pen and approaching the board to have their ideas shared. There is nothing wrong with this, but I would like to explore creativity and our worKING Purpose (to bring glory to God). God proved to us in that first verse of Genesis that He is a creator and given that we are made in His likeness, therefore we are creators as well, or at least He has passed on His creativity to us. While some will immediately say, “I’m not creative, I can’t draw or paint, I can’t write, I can’t act, sing or dance”, I think that that is a bit of a cop out. Some of the most creative people I know are the ones who can look at a problem or a challenge and then creatively come to another way of seeing the issue and be the catalyst for solving the problem. There are people in business who come up with one idea after another with creativity that abounds. So, what’s my point? The point is that I have seen too many people who will sit in the office all day long and never approach the whiteboard because they don’t think they are creative or afraid they won’t have a good idea, but when they leave work, they go home, or to church, or with friends, go and make music, plan events, build business plans for other ventures, lead committees and boards for not-for-profits, lead school groups, solve homework projects with their kids, and on and on. But, at work they sit in the back of the room as if they checked their creativity at the door. If God made us all creators, then we should not stifle our creativity at any time. Just because we are at work does not mean that God doesn’t want to use our full talents. In fact, it is just the opposite. He wants us to use our full range of talents in the workplace to allow others to see what a great piece of creation He has made. So today, when the whiteboard is there for the taking, don’t sit back or hesitate. Lean forward and take the pen and allow yourself to express. Let the creator in you out and be full in who you are. Let God’s creativity work through you, even at work!

Reference: Genesis 1:1 (New Living Testament)