The Three Monks

The “Three Monks” is a Chinese Movie produced by Shanghai Animation Film. 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.

The movie is based on the proverb that posits : "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." Dr. Mandi was trying to teach management by one  of the most unorthodox methods by showing us this animated Chinese movie. It turned out to be a huge success.

Short Description of the Story:

I am narrating the story briefly. There is a monastery located on the top of a hill .The day to day requirement of water has to be satisfied from  only water source  at the bottom of the hill. To collect water one needs to get it from the bottom of the hill in buckets with a stick.A young monk who lives on hill top understands his individual responsibility and fetches water from river flowing downhill. On the next day when new member joins, conflict starts for inequality of work. They try to share job of fetching water. However, younger monk tries to be mischievous and over smart with his attitude and attempts to make the other monk do majority of the work by pushing bucket to other side of pole. The temporary problem gets solved. Next day, when fat monk joins in, who has different needs and consumes major portion of water, encourages conflict within the team members. Consequently, no one fetches water though everybody is thirsty. At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candle holder, leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. Since then they understand the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.

LEARNING:

Here i would like to pick up certain instances from the film and talk about them:

Practical Thinking

There was a gross misunderstanding between the monks. First the small monk comes out with a idea and measures the stick with his palm. But the tall monk refuses and starts measuring with his palms. This leads to the unequal division of the Stick. So again there is disagreement because of the subjective measurement. So both monks start thinking again. Immediately an idea strikes the smaller monks. He decides to measure it with an objective. Thus both the monks come to agreement and resume their work. Its all bout creative thinking. But for solving such a complex problems one needs only simple solution.

Implementing in an organization

Organization should follow the scientific methods to resolve any issues arise while doing the task. In the Software Company the employee should use latest softwares, tools and equipment for better productivity and efficiency. Also they should follow the Software development process while coding.

Collective approach:

When the third monk comes, each monk thinks that other will do the daily chores. But none of them does the work. They start praying in the monastery. Suddenly a mouse lights fire to the monastery. Realizing the need the monks overcome the initial difference and came together as team .They extinguished the fire by fetching water from the river. Thus there was clear coordination between the monks. Thus they survived the disaster. This was an eye-opener for all the three monks.

Implementing in an organization

In the organization it is quite normal that disputes arise eventually. It’s the responsibility of the each and every employee to make sure that they work as part of the team and understand their respective roles and responsibility. Each employee should have the spirit of employer first attitude instead of self-centric.

Out of the box innovation:

Because of the Coordination they came up with an out of the box idea. They installed a pulley at the top of the hill to fetch water. Each person had his respective role in this. One had to fetch water from river to pulley. The next monk had to pull the pulley and the third monk had to take the water from pulley to monastery. This was break through innovation for their problems. Here there was no need for any special skill. Everyone was satisfied with their work. The effort needed for per bucket was drastically brought down.

Implementing in an organization

The solution is innovative and the employees should strive towards achieving efficiency and attaining company goals.The employees should be sympathetic with the changing team dynamics and size. The solution also envisions clearly defined roles for individual worker.

A simple analysis can be used to measure the performance across the three methods:

Variables	Method 1	Method 2	Method 3
No of monks	1	2	3
Skill	High	Moderate	Low
Satisfaction	Low	Moderate	High
Dependency	Low	medium	High
Effort	High	Moderate	Low
Effciency or productivity	Low	Moderate	High