Management Lessons : Three Chinese Monks' Style

Hello World,

There is an old 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". This proverb inspired director A Da to make one of the most appreciated movie in 1980 under Shanghai Animation Film Studio - 'The Three Monks'.

This short animated movie of about 20 minutes, teaches many management lessons to the world without speaking out a single dialogue. The ability of the movie to speak out aloud, makes it worth many awards it has already been honored with. Prof. Mandi brings out this epic into his class and imparts the lessons of management.

Details could be read here.

Let us analyse the movie categorically-

First Monk: Short in height and generous enough to take care of the leaning creature such as tortoise and dying plant in the monastery. He presents you a classic scenario of self reliance where he himself is assigned of all responsibilities. In absence of any assistance, he himself carry 2 buckets of water on a daily basis, managing them through a fulcrum setup. He fetches 2 buckets of water everyday which is more than sufficient to meet his and monastery's need. But this gives him fatigue and satisfaction, as he is the one utilising the resources himself.

Second Monk Joins the First In Monastery: Tall and a generous creature joins the first monk on the hilltop monastery. But soon differences creeps in between the two for fetching the water from the river flowing at the basin of the hill. They try to sort it out amicably and design the fulcrum to carry 1 bucket on fulcrum. But due to difference in their heights, it fails. But, through proper measurement, they soon find a way out to fetch water.

Third Monk Joins The Party: A third fat monk soon joins the previous two in monastery. Owing to his heavy appearance, he consumes all the water to quench his thirst. This enrages the first two monks and they assign him the work to fetch water. Third monk does so just to consume the whole water himself. Finally, all the three monks stops fetching water owing to clashes among them. 

Thus we come across a scenario where none of the three monks are ready to fetch the water from the river down the hill though everybody is thirsty. This not only rifts the harmony of the monastery apart but also starts affecting their concentration. Consequently this benefits a rat who comes to scrounge and knocks the candle-holder resulting in a devastating fire in the monastery.

As a result of the arson, three of them unite and fetches water together to save the heritage they possess. This incident enlightens their wisdom and finally they come together and invent a pulley mechanism to fetch water. They also practice division of work among them which optimizes their work and thus they live happily after.

Let us study in detail the management lessons imparted by this short movie-

1. Team Work
           The movie brings out the importance of working in team/as a group aloud. A work might be done individualistically but as a group it can be done more proficiently without burdening any single individual. Importance of every individual matters in the group to envision the completion of any task.

2. Division Of Labor
          Working in a group does not produces result until it is accompanied by the proper distribution of work. Improper distribution of work may lead to differences and rifts among team members, resulting in the loss of concentration and productivity. Division of work after proper talent recognition is as important as getting the job done.

3. Accountability
          Once the work has been assigned to a particular individual, then they must take the responsibility to the fullest. Their accountability ensures the completion of a quality work on time, with little scope for errors and mishaps.

4. Crisis Management
           Hard times often brings the best out of an individual. A calm composure and rational behavior is all what is required to handle any damn situation. Working as a group eases out the burden if one is stuck in some difficulty.

5. Innovation
         'Necessity is the mother of invention.'-A very vague statement to make but very true to its meaning. If one is not satisfied with the existing monotonous approach of doing things, then the only way out is to invent or innovate a new one. One should always strive for the betterment of the process.

Finally, one should let go the monetary interests while working in a team. A team can never achieve on individualistic approach. It has to put in efforts as one single unit, then only it can expect the desired outcomes.

These were the few management lessons I could gather from the movie. Surely there are many more. I request all the readers to post at least one(apart from the mentioned) lesson that can be learned from the movie. I also invite comments and suggestions.

Cheers.
Ashutosh