Jane's Pocket Change: Don't Shave That Yak
This phrase was, apparently, coined by some folks at MIT some while back and brought to my attention by one of my thought leader heroes, Seth Godin.
This phrase was, apparently, coined by some folks at MIT some while back and brought to my attention by one of my thought leader heroes, Seth Godin.
Here’s how he explains it:
Yak Shaving is the last step of a series of steps that occurs when you find something you need to do. "I want to wax the car today."
"Oops, the hose is still broken from the winter. I'll need to buy a new one at Home Depot."
"But Home Depot is on the other side of the Tappan Zee bridge and getting there without my EZPass is miserable because of the tolls."
"But, wait! I could borrow my neighbor's EZPass..."
"Bob won't lend me his EZPass until I return the mooshi pillow my son borrowed, though."
"And we haven't returned it because some of the stuffing fell out and we need to get some yak hair to restuff it."
And the next thing you know, you're at the zoo, shaving a yak, all so you can wax your car.
You get the drift. It surely is a -concept that explains so much. Sometimes we overthink things; sometimes we spend so much time getting our “ducks in a row” that we forget why we wanted the ducks in the first place. As an author, speaker and innovator, Seth Godin, urges us to be open-minded and willing to take risks, to try new things—something which is a hallmark of CSW’s innovative, different style of education—and to stop putting up barriers or talking ourselves out of even beginning or convincing ourselves that what we really meant to do was shave a yak. (To access a daily dose of Seth’s insights and challenges, check out his blog here. It’s well worth the read.)
I was fortunate to hear Seth speak recently at a conference in Boston and, as always, he inspired me. Yes, he spoke about “shaving the yak,” but he also shared his thinking on another related idea: authority versus responsibility. As a society, we are obsessed with authority, always waiting for someone to give it to us or wondering when we’ll be “appointed.” But, unlike with authority, we can always “take” responsibility. In a recent poll of students from Rochester, New York, that Seth cited, 43% of the respondents chose a future career of being a personal assistant to a TV or video star over various leadership opportunities. These teenagers did not want to take responsibility.
As I reflected on this thinking, and I’m the first to admit that we can do our fair share of “yak shaving” from time to time at CSW, I quickly thought of our students. Our students take responsibility; they do worthwhile work. In his TED talk (also worth viewing) and other work, Seth talks about preparing young people to be part of a connection economy, one in which value is created not by the stuff we make but by the connections we build. And preparing students to be part of that type of economy, that type of community, happens here at CSW every day. Our students and faculty do work here that is what Seth describes as being “on the spot”— work that if they were not doing would be missed. I am inspired every day by that work and responsibility, even if I see the occasional balding yak...
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Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.
Here’s how he explains it:
Yak Shaving is the last step of a series of steps that occurs when you find something you need to do. "I want to wax the car today."
"Oops, the hose is still broken from the winter. I'll need to buy a new one at Home Depot."
"But Home Depot is on the other side of the Tappan Zee bridge and getting there without my EZPass is miserable because of the tolls."
"But, wait! I could borrow my neighbor's EZPass..."
"Bob won't lend me his EZPass until I return the mooshi pillow my son borrowed, though."
"And we haven't returned it because some of the stuffing fell out and we need to get some yak hair to restuff it."
And the next thing you know, you're at the zoo, shaving a yak, all so you can wax your car.
You get the drift. It surely is a -concept that explains so much. Sometimes we overthink things; sometimes we spend so much time getting our “ducks in a row” that we forget why we wanted the ducks in the first place. As an author, speaker and innovator, Seth Godin, urges us to be open-minded and willing to take risks, to try new things—something which is a hallmark of CSW’s innovative, different style of education—and to stop putting up barriers or talking ourselves out of even beginning or convincing ourselves that what we really meant to do was shave a yak. (To access a daily dose of Seth’s insights and challenges, check out his blog here. It’s well worth the read.)
I was fortunate to hear Seth speak recently at a conference in Boston and, as always, he inspired me. Yes, he spoke about “shaving the yak,” but he also shared his thinking on another related idea: authority versus responsibility. As a society, we are obsessed with authority, always waiting for someone to give it to us or wondering when we’ll be “appointed.” But, unlike with authority, we can always “take” responsibility. In a recent poll of students from Rochester, New York, that Seth cited, 43% of the respondents chose a future career of being a personal assistant to a TV or video star over various leadership opportunities. These teenagers did not want to take responsibility.
As I reflected on this thinking, and I’m the first to admit that we can do our fair share of “yak shaving” from time to time at CSW, I quickly thought of our students. Our students take responsibility; they do worthwhile work. In his TED talk (also worth viewing) and other work, Seth talks about preparing young people to be part of a connection economy, one in which value is created not by the stuff we make but by the connections we build. And preparing students to be part of that type of economy, that type of community, happens here at CSW every day. Our students and faculty do work here that is what Seth describes as being “on the spot”— work that if they were not doing would be missed. I am inspired every day by that work and responsibility, even if I see the occasional balding yak...
____________________________________________________
Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.