The Video
In our last Principles of Management class, we were taught about Team and Group Dynamics but not through whats written in Stoner or Donelson but through a simple Chinese video. This was just a wonderful experience where we learnt the concepts given in all the great management books but totally without these books and this is what is unique about our POM class. Lets have a look at that video!
Three Monks No Water - Introduction
Three Monks No Water is a Chinese animated feature film. The video is derived from a book authored by Ting-Xing Ye's. The name of the book or the video has a very interesting origin. Author Ting-Xing Ye’s mother used to say, “It’s typical! Three Monks, no water!” whenever she or her brothers and sisters tried to get out of doing something. Three Monks, No Water is the story behind that enigmatic expression. 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 Story
The above image would help me a great deal in narrating the story! There was a small temple on a hill that was the abode for a little monk. For the sake of simplicity, lets call him Monk1and he is there in the red clothing in the image above. The monk used to lead a simple life, meditating, tending to his vegetable garden and fetching water from a cold stream. Rain or shine, he never used to miss a day lugging this burden up the mountain to the temple. Shouldering two buckets of water, chanting sutras, adding water to the holy water bottle on the table honoring the Goddess of Mercy, and watching over the mice from stealing food at night had become his daily routine. His life was peaceful and smooth. Soon after, a tall monk came. Lets call him Monk2 (in blue clothing). The little monk gave him water to drink in a very courteous gesture. The tall monk consumed all the stored water but realised that now it was his responsibility to fetch water from the river downhill. He did exactly that and went alone to fetch water. He did this for a few days but then soon realised that the Monk1 was now taking advantage of him and was not fetching the water at all. Monk1 was actually finding comfort in this lifestyle but as soon as Monk2 realised this, he coerced Monk1 into coming with him to fetch water. But this time instead of taking 2 buckets, they took only 1 and shared the load of the bucket. But even here politics was involved and each tried to push the load towards the other along the stick as shown in bottom right image above. Even when they decided to do it fairly, the taller monk used his big hands to manipulate the centre of the stick but they eventually used a ruler and loaded the bucket at the centre of the stick. And they followed this routine for the next few days. Then, a fat monk came(Monk3 in Orange). As soon as he came, he drank all the water and there was no water left in the jar. The short monk and the tall one asked him to fetch water by himself. He carried a bucket of water, and drank it up immediately. From then on, nobody would fetch water, so they had no water. Everyone chanted his own sutras and knocked his own wooden fish. As nobody would add water to the holy water bottle, the plant in the bottle withered soon. At night, a mouse came out stealing, but everyone pretended not to see it. As a result, the mouse was so rampant that it knocked over the candleholder and caused a fire. Only thus did the three monks make a concerted effort to put out the fire, and finally awaken. After that, they started hanging together forgetting the animosity among them and came out with an ingenious idea to fetch water where one monk would fetch the water from the river into the bucket, the other would pull it up through a pulley arrangement and third monk would then recieve the water for storage and handover the second bucket. This greatly improved the productivity.
Lessons Learnt
I hope I have been successfully able to convey the story. Many might now be wondering, what's so great about this story and why is a management grad so interested in it. The reason is that in its simplicity lies the treasure of management lessons. The only thing we need is to explore it. So lets just look at some of the lessons that are there to be learnt from this story!
1. Responsibility - The Three monks allow personal pride to interfere with the performance of daily tasks, each believing that the other two should be the ones to go downhill to fetch water. When a fire breaks out, however, they understand how silly they’ve been and work together to save the temple. So from this we learn that in an organization and in a team, its important to take personal vanity out of the equation and to perform the duty at hand so that there is no regret later. A Manager has to take a note of this and check for any signs of work-delegation to others in his team.
2. Complex Problems, Simple Solutions - This is the motto of decision making for any manager or team member in an organization. When Monk1 and Monk2 were trying to push the weight of the bucket towards each other, we in the class were asked to give a possible solution to the problem. And well, quite disappointing, but none of us came up with the solution as shown in the video ie. to hang the bucket at the centre of the stick!! We were discussing work division on alternate days, 1 bucket each everday for both of them, but didn't think of the most obvious and simplest solution. So it's important to be aware of all possibilities and to come out with the simplest solution.
3.Productivity - This is the magical word which should drive all our decisions. When posed with a question from our professor, that whether the two monks should get 2 buckets on alternate days or a bucket shared by both of them, most of us answered "Alternate Days" and by now it's easy to guess that it was the wrong answer because it was driven by common sense and not Productivity analysis according to which getting 1 bucket shared by the two monks is a much better proposition. Just to make it more clear, here is a table illustrating the productivity statistics in either case. Assuming 1 Man uses 1 unit of energy to lift 1 bucket.
4. Right Resources - When Monk1 and Monk2 were trying to divide the load of the bucket equally, the taller monk Monk2 used his bigger hands to show that the bucket should be hung closer to the Monk1, but the presence of a ruler(scale) helped them get the exact center and resolved the problem. Hence it is important for a team and a manger to have the right tools at his disposal.
5. Discourage selfish behaviour - When Monk3 went downhill to fetch water for the first time, he came back and drank water all by himself, exhibhiting a selfish tendency not aligned to the goals of the team ie. to have water stored at all times. This led to further animosity among the 3 monks and the task never got completed. Hence even in an organization, selfish motives should be discouraged. A team working towards a common goal is the best direction to be heading to!
6. Proactive Approach - The monks out of egoistic behaviour did not fill water till the fire broke out and they were left high and dry! Had they not waited for the fire to break out and had kept some water, they would not have been in a crisis. The management lesson here is to have a proactive approach! Do not wait for fire to break out in the organization (Fire is a metaphor for something ungainly in the organization)
7. Law of diminishing marginal Utility - Now I know this one is debatable, but I felt its worth a mention :) For a large organization, the change from 1 monk to 2 monks and then to three monks can be effectively considered as doubling and tripling of the team size respectively. So on the basis of the story, when the workforce doubled, the productivity increased after they started sharing the work but when the workforce tripled, the productivity dropped rapidly. So it is important to determine the apt team size!
8. Co-ordination and an amicable working environment - Only when this was provided, the 3 monks came up with the ingenious idea of a pulley. So it is important to keep a healthy relationship without any antagonism amongst the team members to come up with ingenious ideas.
9. Save for the rainy Day- There always used to be water in the vessel of Goddess of Mercy, but the monks finished that as well and had nothing when fire broke out! So its important to save resources for the bad times in an organization
Conclusion
I know it's hard to believe that a video with 18 mins of run time can be replete with so many lessons in management but there are lessons to be learnt from every second in life. These are just some of them which I have learnt, there might be many more. So I leave it up to the readers of this blog to find out some more lessons that they could get from this video and I am sure if you try hard , you won't be disappointed and would definitely find many more. Signing off now and would return with my next blog...Bye!!
In our last Principles of Management class, we were taught about Team and Group Dynamics but not through whats written in Stoner or Donelson but through a simple Chinese video. This was just a wonderful experience where we learnt the concepts given in all the great management books but totally without these books and this is what is unique about our POM class. Lets have a look at that video!
Three Monks No Water - Introduction
Three Monks No Water is a Chinese animated feature film. The video is derived from a book authored by Ting-Xing Ye's. The name of the book or the video has a very interesting origin. Author Ting-Xing Ye’s mother used to say, “It’s typical! Three Monks, no water!” whenever she or her brothers and sisters tried to get out of doing something. Three Monks, No Water is the story behind that enigmatic expression. 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 Story
The above image would help me a great deal in narrating the story! There was a small temple on a hill that was the abode for a little monk. For the sake of simplicity, lets call him Monk1and he is there in the red clothing in the image above. The monk used to lead a simple life, meditating, tending to his vegetable garden and fetching water from a cold stream. Rain or shine, he never used to miss a day lugging this burden up the mountain to the temple. Shouldering two buckets of water, chanting sutras, adding water to the holy water bottle on the table honoring the Goddess of Mercy, and watching over the mice from stealing food at night had become his daily routine. His life was peaceful and smooth. Soon after, a tall monk came. Lets call him Monk2 (in blue clothing). The little monk gave him water to drink in a very courteous gesture. The tall monk consumed all the stored water but realised that now it was his responsibility to fetch water from the river downhill. He did exactly that and went alone to fetch water. He did this for a few days but then soon realised that the Monk1 was now taking advantage of him and was not fetching the water at all. Monk1 was actually finding comfort in this lifestyle but as soon as Monk2 realised this, he coerced Monk1 into coming with him to fetch water. But this time instead of taking 2 buckets, they took only 1 and shared the load of the bucket. But even here politics was involved and each tried to push the load towards the other along the stick as shown in bottom right image above. Even when they decided to do it fairly, the taller monk used his big hands to manipulate the centre of the stick but they eventually used a ruler and loaded the bucket at the centre of the stick. And they followed this routine for the next few days. Then, a fat monk came(Monk3 in Orange). As soon as he came, he drank all the water and there was no water left in the jar. The short monk and the tall one asked him to fetch water by himself. He carried a bucket of water, and drank it up immediately. From then on, nobody would fetch water, so they had no water. Everyone chanted his own sutras and knocked his own wooden fish. As nobody would add water to the holy water bottle, the plant in the bottle withered soon. At night, a mouse came out stealing, but everyone pretended not to see it. As a result, the mouse was so rampant that it knocked over the candleholder and caused a fire. Only thus did the three monks make a concerted effort to put out the fire, and finally awaken. After that, they started hanging together forgetting the animosity among them and came out with an ingenious idea to fetch water where one monk would fetch the water from the river into the bucket, the other would pull it up through a pulley arrangement and third monk would then recieve the water for storage and handover the second bucket. This greatly improved the productivity.
Lessons Learnt
I hope I have been successfully able to convey the story. Many might now be wondering, what's so great about this story and why is a management grad so interested in it. The reason is that in its simplicity lies the treasure of management lessons. The only thing we need is to explore it. So lets just look at some of the lessons that are there to be learnt from this story!
1. Responsibility - The Three monks allow personal pride to interfere with the performance of daily tasks, each believing that the other two should be the ones to go downhill to fetch water. When a fire breaks out, however, they understand how silly they’ve been and work together to save the temple. So from this we learn that in an organization and in a team, its important to take personal vanity out of the equation and to perform the duty at hand so that there is no regret later. A Manager has to take a note of this and check for any signs of work-delegation to others in his team.
2. Complex Problems, Simple Solutions - This is the motto of decision making for any manager or team member in an organization. When Monk1 and Monk2 were trying to push the weight of the bucket towards each other, we in the class were asked to give a possible solution to the problem. And well, quite disappointing, but none of us came up with the solution as shown in the video ie. to hang the bucket at the centre of the stick!! We were discussing work division on alternate days, 1 bucket each everday for both of them, but didn't think of the most obvious and simplest solution. So it's important to be aware of all possibilities and to come out with the simplest solution.
3.Productivity - This is the magical word which should drive all our decisions. When posed with a question from our professor, that whether the two monks should get 2 buckets on alternate days or a bucket shared by both of them, most of us answered "Alternate Days" and by now it's easy to guess that it was the wrong answer because it was driven by common sense and not Productivity analysis according to which getting 1 bucket shared by the two monks is a much better proposition. Just to make it more clear, here is a table illustrating the productivity statistics in either case. Assuming 1 Man uses 1 unit of energy to lift 1 bucket.
|
Event
|
Output (No. of buckets)
|
Input(Worker Energy units)
|
Productivity = Output/Input
|
|
1
Man – 2 buckets
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
|
2
Men – 1 bucket
|
1
|
0.5
|
2
|
4. Right Resources - When Monk1 and Monk2 were trying to divide the load of the bucket equally, the taller monk Monk2 used his bigger hands to show that the bucket should be hung closer to the Monk1, but the presence of a ruler(scale) helped them get the exact center and resolved the problem. Hence it is important for a team and a manger to have the right tools at his disposal.
5. Discourage selfish behaviour - When Monk3 went downhill to fetch water for the first time, he came back and drank water all by himself, exhibhiting a selfish tendency not aligned to the goals of the team ie. to have water stored at all times. This led to further animosity among the 3 monks and the task never got completed. Hence even in an organization, selfish motives should be discouraged. A team working towards a common goal is the best direction to be heading to!
6. Proactive Approach - The monks out of egoistic behaviour did not fill water till the fire broke out and they were left high and dry! Had they not waited for the fire to break out and had kept some water, they would not have been in a crisis. The management lesson here is to have a proactive approach! Do not wait for fire to break out in the organization (Fire is a metaphor for something ungainly in the organization)
7. Law of diminishing marginal Utility - Now I know this one is debatable, but I felt its worth a mention :) For a large organization, the change from 1 monk to 2 monks and then to three monks can be effectively considered as doubling and tripling of the team size respectively. So on the basis of the story, when the workforce doubled, the productivity increased after they started sharing the work but when the workforce tripled, the productivity dropped rapidly. So it is important to determine the apt team size!
8. Co-ordination and an amicable working environment - Only when this was provided, the 3 monks came up with the ingenious idea of a pulley. So it is important to keep a healthy relationship without any antagonism amongst the team members to come up with ingenious ideas.
9. Save for the rainy Day- There always used to be water in the vessel of Goddess of Mercy, but the monks finished that as well and had nothing when fire broke out! So its important to save resources for the bad times in an organization
Conclusion
I know it's hard to believe that a video with 18 mins of run time can be replete with so many lessons in management but there are lessons to be learnt from every second in life. These are just some of them which I have learnt, there might be many more. So I leave it up to the readers of this blog to find out some more lessons that they could get from this video and I am sure if you try hard , you won't be disappointed and would definitely find many more. Signing off now and would return with my next blog...Bye!!
Good .. But how two monks getting one bucket is productive? you need to prove it backed by numbers..
ReplyDeleteTry to revise the blog.. ..dr mandi
Good informative article.
ReplyDeleteLife is all about management!
ReplyDeletegood one..........
ReplyDeleteyour blog is becoming addictive...........