Undergraduate / Tell us about a time when you learned from failure - UofT One Idea Application [4]

I should prepare better

In my third year of high school around Christmas time, the school was planning on holding its annual festive assembly. Three people including me, who were on the tech crew for the school, were responsible for setting up the event. I was specifically in charge of consulting with each group that was performing and gathering the songs, as well as finding out what lighting cues they needed. I decided that it would be easiest to meet with each group that signed up and talk to them in person about what they needed. During a meet with everyone, I stated that each group should schedule a meeting with me so I can gather what I need from them and we can set a day to practice. What I failed to do was give clear steps and instructions about how to contact me. This lead to only a couple of meetings and not being able to practice with any of the groups. When the day of the assembly arrived, there had been very little preparation and the assembly was disorganized. Looking back, I realized that I should have had a better system to set up a meeting as well as being more clear and concise when explaining. I took this experience and used it to become much better at being clear and concise when planning, as well as being able to give better instructions. For example, in my final year, I was in charge of meeting with each group for the assembly again, but this time I created a spreadsheet online and emailed it out to each group detailing times for meeting and practice. This made it a lot easier for each group to schedule a meeting, along with making the assembly go off smoothly.