Three Monks is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio in the 80s. The film is directed by A. Da and written by Pao Lei. The film has received the following awards:
1. Outstanding film award at the China's Ministry of Culture
2. Best animated film award at the Golden Rooster Award
3. Silver Bear award for short film
So, here goes the story. There is a temple at the top of the hill and there is only one source of water- a pond. It is located at the bottom of the hill. A pitcher is present inside the temple which can be filled by carrying water from the pond. To carry water, 2 buckets and a pole is available. The three monks come to the temple one after another to pray.
The film comprises of four parts. Let’s have a look at all the four parts in terms of productivity. Let's consider the work done by one monk to fill two buckets and carry it to the top as 1 unit or 1 joule.
1) First monk:
With one Pole and two buckets, the first monk fetches water from the pond.
Total Buckets carried = 2, Total work done = 1 unit
2) Second Monk:
Both monks behave friendly at first but when they need water, no one volunteers to fetch it. So they decide to fetch the water together i.e. share the load. The two monks thus carry only one bucket which hangs by the middle of the pole.
So,
Total Buckets carried = 2, Total work done = 0.5 x 2 = 1 unit
3) Third Monk:
When the third monk join the other two monks in the temple, each one of them starts expecting from the other two to bring water. The result being that, no one fetches water. So in all, work done is zero.
Total Buckets carried = 0, Total work done = 0 unit
4) The Culmination:
Suddenly, when fire breaks out inside the temple, all three monks run helter-skelter. They decide to work together. They use a pulley, wherein every monk does a specific task efficiently. The first monk fills a bucket with water from the pond, then the second monk pulls the bucket up using the pulley and finally, the third monk takes the filled bucket and tries to extinguish the temple fire. In a crisis situation, all three make effort and with the sharing of load, all three were able to fix the problem.
So,
Total Buckets carried = 2, Total work done = 0.33 x 3 = 1 units
Here is the 19 minute animation film:
The Take-away:
In the film, we can see how the three monks behave differently in different situations. We also do exactly the same. We take it for granted, when we see others doing the work for us. But, this is not how an organization functions. A successful organization is created when the employees hold themselves accountable for their work without the need for anybody to keep a watch on them. The employees should be self motivated to such an extent that producing results becomes a habit for them. We may tend to think that if the size of the team is increases, the productivity will improve. But this is wrong. What is required is proper harmony & coordination among the team members. A group can deliver results only if they synchronize with each other and act as a team.
Personal Experience:
While working in Infosys, preparation of Course Material and Question papers was one of the jobs which I was supposed to do. Since, there was an urgent need for some Course ppts and Question papers, my manager assigned a fellow employee to assist me in the work. She came and everything seemed jovial. But then, when we started to work on the job at hand, we realized that our styles were very different and it was getting difficult to work as a team. None of us wanted to change our way of working. This started delaying the process, something that was the opposite of what we had intended to do. But then, our Manager was hot on our tail and wanted the job done as soon as possible. We had to do something. We sat down and analyzed what was going on. We tried to understand each other's approach and then made changes such that, finally what we got was sort of a hybrid of both our styles. Yes, we sorted everything out and were able to 'deliver the product on time'! ;)
