If you hired me as a consultant, chances are we would have a conversation at some point where I would say to you, "Stop! You're shaving the yak!"
You would likely say, "What?! There's no yak in my office! What are you talking about?"
I'm taking about going down a rabbit hole on a project that takes up time and resources and, most importantly, aims to solve a problem that doesn't really need to be solved. You my friend unknowingly find yourself shaving the yak, which as you can imagine isn't really something any of us need to do.
I can't take credit for this phrase. I read it here on Seth Godin's blog years ago but I wanted to share it with you in our planning series because it captures something I see happen so often at non-profits -- solving problems that don't really need to be solved, which leads to more unnecessary problems needing to be solved.
Some examples of shaving the yak that I've encountered in my years of consulting:
- Trying to optimize the signatory on a direct mail letter
- Debating a 2 or 3 column newsletter format
- Over segmentation or suppression of segments for mail or email
- Deciding on the colors for gala, which inevitable leads to conversations about table clothes and napkins
You get the gist.
The challenge of shaving the yak is that we don't always recognize we're doing until we've already spent hours attempting to shave it.
And this is exactly why I bring up this problem in our planning series.
Whenever you make plans -- be it a fundraising plan, a communications plan, or even a strategic plan -- you need to find a way to get objective about the plan and identify where you are trying to shave the yak.
When you look at your goals and projects, ask these questions:
- What problem is this really trying to solve for us?
- This is a problem that needs to be solved?
- Is there are better problem to solve?
Need to catch up on the planning series posts?
If you've found this post helpful, you may enjoy this webinar recording that is a 90-minute guided workshop on planning. Yes, it talks about planning for 2019 but everything I teach in it is applicable to planning anytime!
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