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 2403: New Territory

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“So the Israelites examined their food, but they did not consult the Lord.”

Each time we have an idea on how to expand our business we are basically venturing into new territory.  Our schooling has taught us from lore and history that new territory is filled with unknown dangers, perils and possibly predators, even enemies.  So, we are to walk, not rush into new territory and be as sure as we can be that we are prepared for what we don’t know, before we proceed. There are some good practices to follow to help us in these quests. A tried and true one I always fall back on is Peter Drucker’s principle of who should lead something new.  He says, “Put your old horses in the new courses, and your new horses in the old courses.”  Seems simple, right?  Take your experienced people and give them the unknown and use your known to teach those with little experience.  But, how many times have we failed because we just don’t listen to the wise Mr. Drucker?  All the time!  We fear letting our experienced people leave what we count on, so we fail in the new things because the inexperienced just don’t have the knowledge to know what is coming next. It’s a simple principle and learning that is not to be ignored.

Joshua was making a decision on whether someone was telling the truth or not in how they were representing themselves.  He and his team did all the right earthly things and surmised likely the same thing any of us would, but they ended up wrong in their determination.  The Bible tells us why, “but they did not consult the Lord”.  We will make many moves in our careers and lives that take us into new new territory, and we should listen there to Peter Drucker as well, because you see, we have the all experienced, all-knowing, and wisest on our side, if we only choose to truly allow God to walk before us, not behind us.  It’s pretty simple really, just do what Joshua didn’t and consult God before we move or decide.

Reference:  Joshua 9:14 (New Living Translation)