THREE MONKS - FRAGMENTED............

 

  Three Monks is a Chinese animated film produced by the Shanghai animation film studio and directed 

   by A Da is  based on the proverb that

     

 "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 story is about three priests who show the concept of team work after realising that only planning, co-ordination, co-operation, staffing could make them achieve their set goal with increased productivity. 

Fragmenting the story we can see that that there are 5 parts to it.

Part 1: The story starts with a monastery located on a cliff where one monk visits it and finds that the religious flower in front of the deity is in wilted condition as there was no water in the flower vase. He starts searching for stored water inside the monastery but all in vain. Hence he goes all by himself to fetch two buckets of water placed on either side of the bamboo stick which rested on his shoulders.

Calculating the productivity (P) of the above mentioned job,we find that P = 2buckets/1person. Had the first monk carried one bucket of water on his head without using the bamboo stick then the productivity(P) would have been equal to 1bucket/1person.

Part 2:  The arrival of the 2^nd  monk changes the framework of the story where both gets reluctant to fetch water alone. So they thought of placing the bamboo stick on the shoulder of  each one with the bucket in the middle. However the confrontation still continued as to where exactly the bucket is to be placed. Finally the bucket was placed in the middle of the bamboo stick after measuring the spot with a scale so as to ensure even load distribution on each of the monks.Here the productivity improves as compared to the cases where each person carries a bucket on his head or both the persons carry two buckets separately using two different bamboo sticks.

Part 3: The entry of the 3^rd monk into the scene does no help as conflict starts among them. No one was willing to fetch water as there was lack of co-ordination and team building skills. Each one demonstrated selfishness and tried to satisfy one’s own thirst.

Part 4: The incident of a fire inside the monastery set the platform where all three monks with a common goal of dousing the flame toiled hard to get water from the nearby river and was finally successful in extinguishing the inferno.

Part 5: The realisation that the three monks had after this incident are basically the learnings of this animated story. They resorted to a pulley system for fetching the water from the river to the monastery with proper team dynamics and structure that eased their efforts.

Learnings:

1. Common and clear goal sets the foundation of work in an organisation. Managers and workers know what they have to achieve so that they could be a part of a team believing in participative management.

e.g. the goal of dousing the flame to prevent catastrophe.

2. Proper co-ordination and team work can easily accomplish the set goal.

e.g. the fetching of water with the equimodal method.

3. “United we stand divided we fall”  should be the backbone of every organisation.

e.g. no unity no water to drink .

4. Innovation leads to a spiralling growth of the productivity of an organisation.

e.g. the pulley system.

5. The structure of an organisation is an important parameter for it to sustain.

e.g. the obese monk at the bottom of the cliff and the supposedly strong and agile monk with the task of carrying the bucket.

Real life example: In a relay race it is seen that the runners running with the baton have a set goal with proper co-ordination, proper team dynamics and proper staffing. The sequence of the runnners that are to follow is always pre-determined to achieve the maximum productivity out of the runners with the goal of  reaching the finishing line first.If the proper structure is not made then the goal can never be reached.Only a proper synchronization between the runners can achieve them the feat.

These are some of my observations regarding this story .
Would love to hear your comments/suggestions/criticisms. 

Jubin Dey
PGDIM-20