3 Chinese Monks : A Lesson for Life.........

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".

Few things about the film:

The story of the three Monks is an anime film directed by A Da. The film has got many recognition including:

i)        outstanding film award at China's Ministry of Culture.

ii)       Best animated film prize at the first Golden Rooster Awards in 1981.

iii)     four international awards including a Silver Bear for Short Film 

         at the 32nd Berlin FilmFestival in 1982.

Storyline:

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.

Lets discuss and analyze the various situations that arises in the film and also relate to real life situation.

When only one monk is there:

We find that in this case there is only one monk and he carries two bucket of water. It may be sufficient for the monastery as consumer is also one. Here innovative ideas are not being implemented as there is one person so demand being very less and it is getting fulfilled by the resources bought by the same person. In organization this self sufficiency attitude is required for example there is only one member in a team and he is responsible for all the deliverables, then he had to take care of all the requirements and necessary activities to be done without depending on other person.

When Second monk joins the first monk:

Two monks share the load of a single bucket of water. Still they find it difficult because there is no coordination between them. Both of them wants to be in the easy state and wants that other person to do all the work. This situation is very common in any organization. Every team member hardly put equal efforts, here dependency arises and sometimes team work is hampered.

When the third monk joins both the monks:

The work comes to a still as third monk enters the monastery the other two force him to go and fetch water. This particular case is a perfect example of social loafing in an organization where people start exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone. Moreover the lack of proper coordination between the members in the team results in complete organizational failure.

Learning from the Movie:

Productivity

In general Productivity is a ratio of production output to what is required to produce it (inputs). The measure of productivity is defined as a total output per one unit of a total input. In the video, productivity is different for 1 monk bringing water alone, 2 monks bring water and 3 monks working together. It is seen, productivity increases as the synergy between the works increases. Following table shows the relation between productivity and synergy in different cases.

Method	Effort	Productivity	Synergy
1 monk	10 J by 1 person	2 buckets	NIL
2 monks	5 J each	1 bucket	Minimum
3 monks	Minimum	Highest	Maximum Synergy and Inter-dependency

Thus creating a humane environment for all employees so that maximum synergy and inter-dependency exist in the system. This will result in the highest productivity for the organization.

Crunch situation

But we see that in the face of crunch situation, all the three members forget their internal differences and work in a synchronized manner to improve the situation. This results in work being properly distributed in which results in highest efficiency when compared to all other previous cases.

This particular instance highlights that the manager must have a strategy for crisis management. Such a crunch is a common in an  engineer to order manufacturing setup as I have been there, during the time of deadline the pressure increases in numerously and at that time everyone realizes and meet the deadlines with team effort. The role of manager is very critical in the crunch situation as at that time employees do their job properly but there must be someone who can steer the ship and give proper direction.

Adversity is mother of all Inventions:

We saw that after the crunch situation is over, the monks went for innovative ideas due to which work-load is reduced with the help implementation of those innovative methods and proper coordination. Thus the management of any company should focus on technological advancement and innovative ideas so as to increase efficiency

Singing out on a note: 

“Individual Commitments to a group effort- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

                                                               -  Vincent “Vince” Lombardi