About the Video
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.
The story of the three Buddhist Monks is an animated film directed by A Da. The film has got many recognition including:
It is a short and beautiful movie with a wonderful message. A must watch for managers and practitioners who try to implement working-teams in an organization without looking at the other side of the picture.
Plot
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 candleholder, 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.
Watch the video here Three Monks Part I and Three Monks Part II
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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.
The story of the three Buddhist Monks is an animated film directed by A Da. The film has got many recognition including:
- 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.
It is a short and beautiful movie with a wonderful message. A must watch for managers and practitioners who try to implement working-teams in an organization without looking at the other side of the picture.
Plot
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 candleholder, 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.
Watch the video here Three Monks Part I and Three Monks Part II
1 Monk
When one monk descends the mountain and fetches two cans of water at a time everyday to fill up the water, he's enthusiastic but falls asleep in prayer due to fatigue. Here the entire onus of the work is upon him.
2 Monks
Soon a second monks joins him. Initially the second monk brings water. But later he asks the first monk to join him. While bringing water, each wants to transfer the burden to other monk which leads to disagreement. So they then decide to work together. To avoid unequal sharing of load, the first monk takes out a scale and measures the distance from one end of the pole to center while the other monk marks the distance. The two monks then carry the water with equal effort being applied by the two working as a team.
3 Monks
When the third monk joined , the two monks think of transferring the effort to the new monk. But the third monk, being thirsty and tired, drinks the entire can of water that he bought. This leads to further disagreement.The entire scenario changed when a fire broke out in the monastery. The three monks started working together to save the monastery and succeeded. Disaster occurred and they worked together, but management is not only about tackling disasters. Management should have a foresight and should bring out maximum efficiency even under normal conditions. It should ensure that the team works in coordination to complete the task at hand.
Learnings:
The movie throws light on some important concepts of management:
One Person
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Two Persons
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Three Persons
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Work Method
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Fetching water with two buckets on a pole
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Fetching water with one bucket on a pole
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Fetching many buckets of water using a pulley system
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Tools
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Pole, 2 buckets
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Pole, 1 bucket
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Pulley, rope, buckets
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Effort
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2
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0.5
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0.000001
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Output
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2
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1
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∞
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Efficiency
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1
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2
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∞
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1. Process Innovation and Efficiency
Efficiency = Output / Effort
Different processes have different efficiency levels. One of the important functions of a manager is to optimize the process, improve the work design and try to aim for the most efficient process.
We see that even during the fire, when all the monks were doing extra effort, their efficiency level is not at par with the final solution. This it is important for managers to be thought leaders and try to come up with innovative solutions to improve efficiency.
So how do we increase the productivity of a system. The video shows that the maximum productivity resulted when pulley system was used which was an innovative way of fetching water with the least effort. One of the most important tool is thus designing the operation systems.
2. Use of Standard Methods
When the two monks decided to work together, each tried to transfer the burden to the other. Finally they decided to mark the center of the rod to avoid discrepancy. Initially when they were using their hands, the measurement was incorrect and none of them was happy. So they used a scale which is a standard method of measurement and using this method one of them measured and the other marked making both of them happy.
Even in real life, a manager should use standard methods wherever possible to improve the work methods and to win the confidence of the team.
3. Teamwork
We see a totally new phenomenon that as the number of people increase, the productivity has come down drastically. This is the core learning from this story also:
Without Cooperation, 1 monk can fetch 2 buckets of water, 2 monks can fetch 1 bucket of water and 3 monks will fetch no water at all.
With cooperation, 3 monks can increase the efficiency of the process to a level previously unattainable. (Innovation, creativity etc plays an important part).
Thus every manager who professes the importance of team work should also look at the flip side and the negative effects by having an imbalanced team.
4. Participative Management
Every individual is different. In the story, there was a thin, a tall and a fat monk signifying different characteristics of people in real life. The final solution which saw the use of a pulley put the individual characteristics of each of them to the best use. The fat monk lifted water from the pond, the tall guy with long legs carried it to the monastery and the short guy poured it into the vessel.
Similarly in real life, no task is good or bad. The role of a manager is to identify the individual strengths of each member of his team and delegate tasks accordingly. He/she should involve each member of his team to attain maximum efficiency.
I hope all of you watch the video and take away important learnings from it.
Happy Reading!!!
