Three MONKS but no WATER !!

Sometimes ‘small can be beautiful’. A small video which titles as ‘Three Monks’- a Chinese animated film made me learn so many wonderful aspects of management. To those who have not watched it, can watch it here.

Or can watch it here :

Plot in Brief:

A young monk lived a harmonious life in a monastery situated on a hill top. He used to bring two buckets of water from a river downhill. A second monk joined the monastery, the first monk was happy that he got someone to do the job of bringing water. But soon, he had to share the responsibility and they brought a water together using a large stick. When the third monk joined the monastery, the two monks threw the responsibility on him to bring the water. Soon, the third monk gave up and there was no water. One night the monastery caught fire and there was no water to extinguish it. They made a united effort to put out the fire. After this the monks realized the importance and started working together to bring water.

The movie has won some outstanding awards and recognition too:

• Won the outstanding film award at China's Ministry of Culture.
• Won the Best animated film prize at the first Golden Rooster Awards in 1981.
• Won four international awards including a Silver Bear for Short Film at the 32nd Berlin Film Festival in 1982.

My Understanding and Analysis:

At one point of time the two monks can be seen carrying a bucket of water on their shoulders using a long stick. And they can be seen trying to push the load onto the other person. This is very common in organisations that generally people want others to do their jobs too and don’t want to share responsibilities. The ideal system with bucket at the centre teaches about the importance of sharing burden and responsibilities in a team, which according to me is IDEAL TEAM WORK.

As Team Work helps in reducing the inputs/efforts, the productivity can be increased.

BUT as this video also shows that METHOD should also be accordingly modified. While two monks could share the load at the center.The same method could not be used when the third monk came in. And towards the last video shows how the monks wonderfully shared the responsibility using an innovative method.

SO METHODS NEED TO BE WORKED UPON TOO.

A simple analysis to study the productivity and efforts of monks in all the three methods shown in the video:

	METHOD 1	METHOD 2	METHOD 3
No of monks	1	2	3
Dependency	Low	medium	High
Effort	High	Moderate	Low
Efficiency or productivity	Low	Moderate	High

Moreover, after giving a thought over the fire-fighting scene, I realized that often in organisations (and in general life too) we tend to take reactive actions and not proactive. If the monks had realized this early the chances of fire could be minimized  So the team members understand their roles and responsibilities well and try to synergise their efforts.

                                                              

Whenever people cooperate to achieve a common goal, the Chinese say :-  

                "Great Things can be achieved by working together"