The College Creator: 10 Things Learned While Building TEDxNortheasternU
What Is This About?
I excitedly walk out the doors of Ell Hall at Northeastern University. “Could this solve the problem?” I think to myself, as my mind races around what it would mean to start something new. To build an organization in my third year as an undergraduate. To create something from scratch, and take that idea from nothing but a thought, and turn it into something.
That excitement eventually turned into what became TEDxNortheasternU.
For those of us lucky and/or privileged enough to attend college, the experience is whatever you make it. Among many of the experiences I’ve had while attending university, building TEDxNortheasternU is one which is sure to forever be etched into my memory.
Why am I writing this article?
- To Celebrate: The people are the heart of any organization. I wanted to write this to share the impact they’ve had on the organization and me personally.
- To Share: Share my story and learnings so that interested college students may be inspired to start something new and pursue their own interests.
- To Remember: I want to solidify my key takeaways and experiences through the honing process that is writing.
Some Brief Background on TEDxNortheasternU
When I left Northeastern, TEDxNortheasternU just recently finished its flagship event. The event had 300 attendees, 12 speakers, a variety of interactive exhibits, and representation from every part of Northeastern’s campus, from professors to undergraduates, staff to administrators, alumni to graduate students. Truly a place of collaborative learning and idea sharing.
But it wasn’t always that way…
We started as a scattered group. Two different groups of students interested in building a TEDx organization picked up steam, and eventually joined forces. From there it grew into a 10 person organization, few of whom had put on a highly polished production before.
Yet, there we were. A great team. A problem to solve. The vision we wanted to reach. Too much ambition. A dash of ignorance.
The space in between — two and a half years worth — was filled with amazing people, experiences, strategies, execution, and support which made it possible for the group to transition leadership and move into its third year. It was also filled with frustration, stress, disagreements, and moments that put us on the border of imploding.
It wasn’t all peaches and roses, but it was worth every second. (Side note: I hear this phrase so often, but sometimes those overused phrases have a parcel of truth that only makes sense once you go through the journey.)
Below are the 10 top things I learned by creating an organization. While each creator’s list might be different, I guarantee that whether you are starting a club, volunteer group, company, or any other organization — your learning will be exponential. If you’re lucky to have the right support, following a shared mission, with fantastic people — you might just ride the edge of real fulfillment, even for a fraction of second. Once you get that taste, you might have to come back for more.
Now with that in the back of your mind, let’s dive in.
Learnings — and For Those Involved, A Walk Down Memory Lane
1) Mission Driven Work is the Best Work
Mission is what drives you through the challenging times. A real motivating mission will seep into everything you do, and help your team catch fire. Want to know one of the best feelings in the world? The feeling of being connected to something greater than yourself.
2) Team & Trust Are the Reason Things Happen (Aka Culture)
“If you want to go far, go together.” It’s true, our organization wouldn’t have been able to do a fraction of what it was able to accomplish without its clever, thoughtful, caring, smart, driven, and supportive individuals. At the end of the day, we all have a limited view of the world. Building a community of individuals with offsetting skills and knowledge who offer different viewpoints will take your community to new heights.
3) Finding and Cultivating an Amazing Team
Great talent can come from any direction — always be on the lookout. How do you cultivate an amazing team? Evaluate patterns of behavior to see strengths and weaknesses. Once you see this, you can put people in places to leverage strengths while pointing out, and working on weaknesses together. Never forget, it’s more about them then it is about you. Help team members get to the places they want to go — give growth pathways to new and challenging work. Let them follow their interests. Overtime, the goal is to build confidence within the individual as well as the team.
4) Think For Yourself: Perseverance and Creativity
Sometimes you get into dire straits. Like…”if you can’t accomplish this specific goal, the organization collapses” dire straits. We’ve certainly had our fair share of these instances. The interesting part is that when you’re backed against a wall and have nothing to lose, you need to take a shot. Sometimes you’ll surprise yourself. Trouble fundraising? Maybe you need a Hail Mary email straight to the top. Not sure how to hang up essential foam lettering on the day of the event? Grab dental floss and black paint. Can’t afford the required videography? Ask for that massive discount. Read between the lines and do your best to get around barriers.
5) Build a Vision, For You and For Your Team
Mission is why we are here, vision is what we are going to do to reach the mission, and this feeds into actions to move forward. Ever play that ‘connect the dots’ game as a kid? It’s kind of like that, make them all connect to win. But, with a group. Take initiative to wrap others into the direction of the organization, figure out the way forward together, seek to understand the surrounding obstacles and work together to find your way through it. Few things are more beautiful than organization alignment.
6) High Standards Are Important (But Are Also Double-Sided)
High standards helped us stay true to our mission and vision through the planning process. They helped us push the bar, ask better questions, and ultimately have better answers. You’ll sometimes find you’re able to achieve more than you ever thought when individuals hold each other accountable in a group. Even more so when that is underpinned by a shared mission. But be warned, there is an ugly side to high standards. Be careful to tread the line of pushing vs criticizing. Strive for ‘better’ but know when to let off the steam so you don’t push any single individual too far. Tread lightly.
7) Small Details Matter (Just Keep the Big Picture In Mind Too)
Small details differentiate amateurs from professionals. They differentiate copying vs original. When you understand the small details you can make granular changes which, when added, produce a profound effect. Want to show your team you care? Surprise them with gifts. Looking to be perceived as a high quality event? Buy (potentially too many) succulents and table clothes for a polished feel. Building a high-quality speaker training process? Make sure to leave flexibility to account for each speaker’s unique strengths and weaknesses — cookie cutter won’t cut it. Did discussing and ideating all of these ideas take extra time? Yes. Did it build a higher quality event? You bet.
8) Be Vulnerable and Have Individuals You Can Confide In
When you’re stressed, unsure, concerned, or confused, have a few individuals you can confide in to let everything out and brainstorm solutions with. When things get hard…be transparent with the team on issues, forge paths together and address the problems, but don’t use them as your therapist. I for one, wouldn’t have been able to be nearly as effective in my role as co-organizer without my counterpart, Becca, pushing me to continually be my best and picking me up at my worst.
9) The Intricacies and Challenges of Fundraising
Everyone has their own missions and goals, you need to find ways to align what you are focusing on with what they are trying to achieve as a sponsor. Money occasionally comes with strings as well, choose your sponsors wisely. If you do choose wisely, they can be some of your biggest champions and supporters. Also, negotiating is hard — even with the benefit of raising from a university which wants to support its students.
10) The Only Way to Learn Leadership is Through Experience
Reading can show the hardships, coffee chats can give tailored advice, but nothing prepares you for leading an organization. Every individual has their own way of being, interests, motivations, direction, and more. You must tailor your leadership style to each individual. When you make a mistake, and you inevitably will, you must own up to it, and try to find a solution. Defensiveness solves nothing and can make your team feel like you don’t value their opinion. Avoid this at all costs. Some days will be low, super low. But other times, it will be the highest high as you proudly look upon the amazing memories and achievements being created right before your eyes.
Extra Point: The Critical Art of Storytelling to a Wide Audience
This article is flexing that muscle. If you’ve made it this far down the article, I suppose it might be working!
Wrapping Up
The experience of building an organization is unique. If you’re thinking about it, 10/10 would recommend building an organization in any capacity — big or small — to solve a problem you feel passionate about. I hope this article can help nudge you to make a decision.
Experiences are the building blocks of life. To all of the team members, mentors, speakers, friends, advisors, sponsors, partners, and more, thank you for helping make this building block of TEDxNortheasternU memorable.
