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 2375: Forest Versus Trees

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“But the accusations made against him weren’t any of the crimes I expected. Instead, it was something about their religion and a dead man named Jesus, who Paul insists is alive.”

I’ve come to the conclusion that the more we know about something, the harder it is to simplify and distill down a message or explanation, so everyone else can understand.  Take a complex TV show that we have been watching for many seasons.  Try and explain it to someone who has never heard of the show.  Try and explain your company’s unique offering to someone who doesn’t understand anything about your business?  Yes, it is really hard to do.  And so goes living, working and getting lost in the forest. Sometimes, we just need to get outside of the trees and ask what everyone else see and thinks?  And, you should be doing this with your employees too?  Step away and watch and  listen to what they say and see.  I’ve got ideas on how to help you with that, if interested.  Just email me.

I was reading the book of Acts as part of my Bible reading plan.  And there it is, in Acts 25: 18-19 on how the rest of the world simplifies our beliefs.  Paul was confronted with it starkly and he had to be in totally amazement as to the simplicity of the argument; “This guy Paul believes a dead man is still alive.”  It’s an awesome lesson for all of us.  We think deeply and earnestly about our beliefs and we expect others to do the same.  But, that’s not where they are, or may ever be.  They just may hang out at, “I’m just looking to you as one tree of the forest to see if it’s  all worth believing in, or not.”

Reference:  Acts 25:18-19 (New Living Translation)