The Three Monks: Ancient Proverb Re-written

Three Monks is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio and directed by A. Da. The movie was screened at NITIE POM Classroom as a part of learnings on Team work and Organizational Culture.

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 proverb is close in meaning to the saying "Let George do it," wryly noting how individuals shirk group responsibilities. The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture

Plot:

There was a small temple on a mountain and a little monk in the temple. His daily routine was shouldering water, chanting sutras, knocking the wooden fish, 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. His life was smooth and comfortable. Soon after, a tall monk came. He drank half of the jar’s water as soon as he arrived at the temple, so the little monk asked him to fetch water. The tall one thought it was unfair for him to fetch water alone, so he asked the young one to do it together. They could only carry one bucket a time, and they would only feel content when the bucket was placed in the middle of the shoulder pole. Anyway, they still had water to drink in this way. Then, a fat monk came. He wanted to drink, but there was no water 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 candle holder 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 and the temple never lacked water again.

Criticism of Chinese Bureaucracy of 80’s

This animation is a masterpiece of social satire and although it was made nearly a quarter century ago, its criticism still applies today. The hidden target of criticism is the massive Chinese bureaucracies that are extremely inefficient and ineffective: so many people are hired but nobody does any job because everyone wanted somebody else to do the job, just like the way those three monks expecting others to get the water.


Observations and the management Lessons Learnt:

Craftsmanship:

Initially, a single monk could get 2 pails of water daily. Though he is happy with the work, still compared to pulley system involving all the 3 monks, his productivity is less. In the modern manufacturing process, Specialization leads to efficiency as practice makes perfect, therefore the work within particular skills will develop skills and efficiency through repetition of the job. However Specialization also brings Boredom, fatigue to the worker which is missing in case of Craftsmanship of the single monk.

Team Work & Interdependency:

When second and 3rd monk joined the temple, disagreement arises due to individual viewpoint and objective. Trust, one of the main components of T7 model of cohesive team work, was found to be lacking between the 3 monks (http://nitieim19pomb126.blogspot.in/2012/07). In final solution carrying water to house uphill using Pulley, the process is highly interdependent as compared to earlier ways of carrying water. Interdependence among the three monks is crucial and maximum and without trust factor, interdependence cannot guarantee a fruitful result. All modern organizations are decentralized with maximum co-ordination and co-operation between each department through Enterprise Resource Planning and trust is one of the main factors for effectiveness of ERP.

Conflict Management and Theory Z:

Like the disputes between the 3 monks, disputes between the employees are very common and inevitable. Different employees have different goals, appraisal, higher remuneration which sometimes creates conflict among employees. Management always try to create a synergy among the employees by creating a common goal: A vision and mission statement will help to create unity within the organization and basis for measuring and controlling performance.

As shown in the movie, the 2 monks resolve the conflict by using a common scale. Similarly a common system of assigning jobs to employees and appropriate evaluation of the deliverables will lead to greater satisfaction among employees. Theory Z is an approach to management based upon a combination of American and Japanese management philosophies and characterized by, among other things, long-term job security, consensual decision making, slow evaluation and promotion procedures, and individual responsibility within a group context. Theory Z managers exhibit a strong, homogeneous set of cultural values characterized by homogeneity of values, beliefs, and objectives.

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	100 J by 1 person	2basket	NIL
2 monks	50 J each	1 basket	Minimum
3 monks	Minimum	Highest	Maximum Synergy and Interdependency

Conclusion

The managers will follow a path between X & Y, creating a humane environment for all employees so that maximum synergy and interdependency exist in the system. This will result in the highest productivity for the organization.