Three Monks

Three Monks is a Chinese animated movie film produced by the Shanghai Animated Film Studio. After the Cultural Revolution and the fall of the political Gang of Four in 1976, the film was one of the first animations created as part of the rebirth period. It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests.

Those of you, who have not seen the animated movie, please watch the video posted below. This would help you understand the content of the blog much better.

The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water; two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water.

This movie holds in itself immense amount of lessons for the budding managers. Dr. Mandi asked us to watch the movie, which would be discussed in the class the other day.

There was a healthy discussion on the same in the class. The discussion on the movie made us understand the intricacies of Team Dynamics. We understood how a simple situation (crisis) turns into a complicated one and how instead of providing a simple solution we end up giving complex ones.

1st Part of the movie:

The first part of the movie shows that there is a monk who lives in a monastery on the top of a hill. He comes down to fetch water from the river and lives happily. He does his job seriously. Then a second monk comes and starts living with the first monk. The problem starts when they go to fetch water. None of them wants to put in extra effort to carry the filled buckets back. They are unable to decide how to divide the work among themselves as no one wants to do any extra work. The monks calculate the length of the stick carrying the bucket and hang the bucket in between. 

Dr. Mandi explained us that as a manager our job is to find simple and easy solution. The solution should be universal so that the application does not depend on the kind of user involved. A system should be such that is allows application to be used by anyone, anywhere without possessing any special knowledge or skill. Organization with complex rules and regulation mostly do not thrive.

2nd Part of the movie:

2nd part shows the arrival of 3rd Monk in the monastery. The arrival of the third monk creates a conflict as he consumes more amount of water than the other two plus who two will bring the water. Since they are not able to resolve this conflict no one goes and the monastery is without water. The conflict makes them disregard each other. They do not talk to each other, do not share the resources. They even stop performing their duties of worshiping Buddha .Then one day fire breaks in the monastery. Seeing the crisis, all three of them start working together. Each one of them put in lot of efforts and finally they cease the fire.

This is short time management as the decisions are being taken for a very short duration of activity. It explains how they were not ready for the crisis. It also shows how by working for a common cause they were able to achieve success in ceasing the fire. Though they did not employ an easy way to fetch water, they were able to achieve results because of their hard work and common mission.

3rd Part of the movie:

This part shows the monks coming together as a group and devising a technique for drawing water which will require less effort and better coordination of the three people. They employ a pulley for the operation. This was an efficient as well as effective way of fetching water.

Lessons from the Movie:

• Teamwork enhances efficiency: The Three monks first allow personal pride/ego to interfere in the performance of daily tasks, each believing that the other two should be the ones to go downhill to fetch water. When a fire breaks out, however, they understand how silly they have been and work together to save the monastery. So, from this we learn that in an organization, it’s important to take personal vanity out of the equation and to perform the duty at hand so that there is no regret later. A Manager has to take a note of this and check for any signs of work-delegation to others in the team.

• Disputes tend to arise, but we should not forget the mission: As the complexity of an organization increases (as no. of people increase) the arguments or disputes do occur, but they should not affect your day to day work. A good manager is one who does entertain people’s suggestions or opinions, but at the same time makes sure that the basic agenda or the mission of the organization stands healthy.Team working towards a common goal is best direction for an organization.\

• Technology should always be used to the fullest: Human Beings develop technology so that they can be used to deliver efficient and effective outputs. An organization should always be ready to employ better technology.

•  Complex Problems, Simple Solution: A manager should always try to give simplest of the solution to a problem. No matter what the complexity of the problems is, there are always simple solutions to them.

• The most efficient method to solve a problem evolves over a period of time: So which of the following is efficient way of bringing in water :

          a)     1 Monk bringing 1 bucket of water at a time, or
          b)  1 Monk bringing 2 buckets of water at a time,or

          b)    2 Monks bringing 1 bucket of water at a time
          
          Here we define the term "productivity"
        
PRODUCTIVITY - Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is the ratio of production output to the efforts or inputs given to produce the same.

Productivity = Total Output/One unit of Total Input

There was lot of discussion on the same in the class; the solution for the same is explained in the following table:

Event	Output (No. of buckets)	Input (No. of Monks involved)	Productivity = Output/Input
1 Man – 1 bucket	1	1	1
1 Man – 2 buckets	2	1	2
2 Men – 1 bucket	1	2	0.5

•  2 + 2 = 5
•      An individual’s strength when realized and utilized properly gives better results compared to result achieved when they work individually. Each monk’s strength was better utilized when they drew water by pulley. This helped them develop a simple solution to long lasting problem.

 I had such an experience in my professional career.I worked in an IT industry. Once in my project,the entire team was suppose to develop a particular deliverable in specific time frame.It consisted of lot many modules.The modules were highly inter dependent on each other. Initially each of the developers tried to just be concerned about finishing their own module,without realizing that its not the module's success which matters,it entire deliverable which matters.As I said,the modules were highly interdependent.Working of ones module made the other dis function. 

As a result not all test cases were tested plus many of the functionalities did not work till dead line.Finally,all the team members held a meeting.The approach and strategy to deal with the issue was planned.We all realized the dependent elements.Worked in team,tested each others codes and functionality and got most of the deliverable working.

Initially,we had a lot of time.We did not utilize it properly.We were busy completing our own work.Had we planned at the first place,we would not have faced the crisis and surely could have avoided working on weekends to complete our work.It was sheer lack of management and team work.But we finally understood the importance of working in team and making proper plans and strategies before rushing into things.