3 Monks ... teaching Management Lessons !!!

3 Monks !!!

Three Monks is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation 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.

Mute but Not silent in TEACHING ... 

Background

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.” The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk.

see the clip:

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolBiHfWokY

Story:

A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has one daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. He tries to share the job with another monk, but the carry pole is only long enough for one bucket. The arrival of a third monk prompts everyone to expect that someone else will take on the chore. 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.

  

different solutions were given by us as Dr. Mandi .They are as follows:

·                     2 monks - 1 bucket

·                     One Monk - 1 Day

·                     Half way - 1 monk & other half - other monk 

·                     Get a motor connect to a pipe.

·                     Put a middle mark on the stick

·                     Monastery should shift to ground.

·                     & many more....

And the whole point here is that we have to look into the efficiency of the system as a whole.

	1 monk	2 monk
Output	2 basket	1 basket
Input	say 100 - theoretical	50 - theoretical
	200 - actual	50 - actual
Productivity	1/100	1/50

Now moving on to the interpretations for the same.

Objective Measurement:

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 a idea strikes the smaller monks. He decides to measure it with a 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.

The use of scale is the one of the best moves as this is scientific way of doing things.If the organization has to achieve the best results then it is the necessary pre-requisite to quantify it and there should be no subjective measurement.

Collective approach:

 Then the third monk comes. Each monk thinks that other will do the daily chores. But none does the work. They said praying in the monastery. Suddenly a mouse lit fire to the monastery. Realising 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.

 

Out of the box innovation:

 

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

Representation in tabular form:

Variables	Method 1	Method 2	Method 3
No of monks	1	2	3
Information flow	None	Slow	Fast
Skill	High	Moderate	Low
Satisfaction	Low	Moderate	High
Dependency	Low	medium	High
Effort	High	Moderate	Low
Effciency or productivity	Low	Moderate	High