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 2548: Distance Working

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“Then I explained to the nobles and officials and all the people, “The work is very spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall.“

The communication technology tools that are becoming available to all of us with ease and affordability are amazing. We think nothing now of setting up a video conference as simply as we once made a phone call. And, at no cost. It makes the possibility of distance working that much more realistic and exciting.  However, lets not be fooled into believing that the technology can replace the need for discipline and commitments that underpin the technology.  I’ve found that doing positive work over distance with technology can be very productive, but trying to resolve the negative or settle disputes, well that is a bit of a risk.  It’s hard enough to find commonality and agreement when under pressure and controversy when we are live with each other, much less allow technology to mask true feelings and honest evaluation of each other.  Thus, let’s be careful of how dependent we become on the technology so we don’t erode the need (and commitment) to keep our personal relationships strong.

Nehemiah was leading the building of the city walls when he realized that there was risk in not having the workers close enough to communicate and protect each other.  To protect themselves they would have had to watch out for each other by checking in or having a sign or calling to those along the wall line. Not unlike a military unit might do to ensure that everyone checks in to assure everyone is safe and okay.  I might suggest we could take a lesson from this as we work as ones trying bring our faith and glory to God through our jobs.  Are there those who are at a distance from us who could benefit from our check in and vice versa?  It may feel to some that they are on the battle lines today and that a direct, caring reach out communication could be just the thing they need today.

Reference: Nehemiah 4:19 (New Living Translation)