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 2903: Take Space and Make Space

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“So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground.”

Like so many, I have been on daily Zoom calls for so long now I didn’t think there was anything new to learn about how to best operate in a digital meeting.  That was until I heard the ground rules of a recent session and one of the expectations (not just a suggestion) was to “Take Space and Make Space”.  It’s great advice and I don’t know that I had ever heard the same in a real life in-presence meeting.  Sure, I’d heard, “We expect everyone to participate and contribute” and “It’s important that everyone gets a chance to speak up and participate”, but I’d never heard such a specific direction as “we expect everyone to take space and make space.”  It was great, because so many times in order to participate or speak we will wait for permission or a “natural” moment to step in.  But, the idea that we are expected to “take space” was very freeing and empowering.  And, the consideration of others to “make space” seemed so good to do that it was comfortable to be quiet.  Yes, it’s okay to take our space, but only in consideration that in order for others to do so too, we have to make space.

Jesus came to occupy and embody the space between us and God. He filled in the emptiness.  But, He also asked us to take up his cross.  Even as Jesus taught us with Parables and in the environments that he chose to sit the people in spaces to learn and experience Him, we can see that He gave us space to choose and space to take from Him to become His followers.  We are to make space for Him in our hearts and lives, but how actively are we taking that space and making all that He wants us to do?  Our faith, like Jesus is not passive.  To be so with our faith is to miss out on all the space that is left for us to receive from Him.

Reference: Galatians 4:3 (New Living Translation)