Three Monks

Yet another interesting lecture of POM and the excitement knew no bounds when we were told to watch a film. Just relax, feel comfortable, recline in your chairs and enjoy a 15 minute film on the projector. The lights were switched off and the movie was projected in the big screen. The only thing missing was a popcorn tub and a bottle of Pepsi but that was too much to ask for.  

 Let  me give you a premise to this short film. It is a short Chinese animated film released in 1990 directed by A DA. It was one of the most beloved films of the shanghai animation film production house. It was won many film festival awards throughout the world.

Hope you enjoy this rather simple story but having great wealth of knowledge.

Now that you have enjoyed the film, Lets me discuss a few things that I learned from it
Let us divide this story into four Parts

Take One

Here we see that the first monk has a happy and cheerful way of going about things.  He reaches the monastery atop the mountain. He sees the withering plant and decides to nourish it with water.  He readily fills two buckets of water from the river flowing at the bottom of the hill. He continues this routine for many days. Initially he is full of vigour and enthusiasm but as the days pass by the fatigue sets in.  He feels the need for extra help in order to carry on his duties efficiently.

Delegation: From managerial point of view, we understand the importance of delegation. No matter how skilled a person is, it is humanly impossible to handle all the work by a single person. If an employee invests too much of energy in work, his balance of life is disturbed. He cannot concentrate on the other aspects of life (Praying). His productivity is on a decline as the day passes. Hence it is important that the work is divided amongst the employees properly.

Take Two:

Here we see the entry of the second monk. Once he reaches the monastery, he volunteers to bring the bucket of water. Later both the monks feel the need to divide the work amongst them.  There arises a conflict between the monks as each one of them try to escape the work burden. The carry pole is too long for a bucket of water. As a result the two monks keep shifting the bucket weight from one side to other depending upon their convenience. Sanity prevails when the first monk brings out a scale which divides the work pole into two equal parts. This shares the work burden equally among the three monks.

Productivity: Here we see that the productivity of each monk has increased as the two monks have started working in unison. Let me explain this with the simple table.

Productivity = output / effort

Effort for carrying 1 bucket full of water = 1

                                  

	CASE  I	CASE II
Output	2	1
Effort / person	2	0.5

Thus it can be seen that Productivity in case 1 = 1

Productivity in case 2 = 2

As the work gets divided the productivity of the work increases. In an organisation the work has to be effectively divided among the employee in order to work efficiently. This lessens the burden of each employee and extracts the maximum output from each of them.

Quantifying work load – Just as the first monk uses the scale to equally divide the work load, it is important to use some innovative tool or a standardized and unbiased procedure to share work amongst the employee. This can act as an effective tool for conflict resolution and help the employee to work harmoniously.

Take three.

Now the third monk enters the story. Being stout and plump, it takes much of an effort to climb the hill and reach the top of monastery. He drinks all the water from the pot.  The other two monks tell him to replenish the pot of water it is seen that the pot of water is too less to quench the thirst os all the three monks. This triggers a conflict between the three monks. Finally no one bothers to bring water to the monastery.

 Bureaucracy - In case of lack of rules there is anarchy and lawlessness. For an organisation to function there has to be a proper framing of rules. This gives a definite direction to the course of work.

Take four:

At night, a mouse comes to scrounge and knocks off the candleholder leading to a devastating fire in the monastery. A s the three monk smell trouble. They spring to their feet. They start running with the bucket of water to the bottom of the hill and do everything to put off the fire. They work in unison in this moment of trouble and finally succeed in extinguishing the fire. The three monks then shake hands to acknowledge the effort put in by all three of them. They begin to live harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.

Unity is strength: -

In the moments of desperation, the three monks acted like a team. Unfavourable situations are the true test of one’s character. It is only during such situation that we realise what we are capable of doing.

There is a lot to learn from from this video, this is just a tip of the ice-berg. hope you guys like this blog. Good bye till we meet again