Fool me once

I was recently involved in planning an event that had multiple coordinators who, prior to this particular project, had never met. One person immediately took charge and the rest of us took the path of least resistance and let them run with it. I figured they must have done this before, so I will sit back and manage my little corner of the event while they tackle the over-arching goals. The gathering didn't go so well. It wasn't a total disaster, but clearly it didn't flow as smoothly as I would have envisioned or hoped. At the event, this person shared they had NEVER done this before. What?!?

It was apparent that I didn't do my due diligence. I failed to dig deeper and play more of an active role in helping this person get it together. Shouldn't I know better? In fact, yes I should. TTFR has hired firms that on initial interview are enthusiastic go-getters that have a clear vision in response to whatever it is we are asking of them. Early on, we didn't dig deeper. We took these professionals at face value and hired them, sometimes at a significant cost to our bank account, as well as our reputation. It didn't matter that TTFR paid them a lot. We got burned more than once at different price points. At least we shared the love.

So the event happened. That was a plus. Was it as great as it could have been? No, but I know better for the next time.