Three Monks

Three Monks is a Chinese animated film directed by A Da and produced my Shanghai Animation Film Studio. The 18 minute short film is without any dialogues is released in 1980. Since then it has been critically acclaimed and recieved many awards. Lets take a look at the video now.

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."

It can be understood that all the three monks are good at heart from their introductions. But still they were not able to achieve a harmony initially,  Why?? This is where the role of management comes in. 

All human beings most basic tendency is to get everything done without any effort, i.e. be lazy. If you can manage to get your work done by someone else you will be most happy. Mostly, prey to this will be the junior most member in the group. This is what has happened with the monks too. I am sure that  it might have happened to most of us.

This is where the role of a manager comes in. He has to increase the total efficiency of the system. 

Efficiency= Total Output/Total Input

Initially the only person was there and he used to fetch the water himself. When the second person came, they shared the load. With the addition of the third, no one is ready to fetch the water. Thus efficiency of the system has come down to zero or the system ceased to operate.  It is the responsibility of the manager  to divide the work efficiently and effectively among the team and to ensure that it is done. 

Here in the case of fire, the three monks joined to put out the fire. They did the work effectively but not efficiently. They doused the fire.  With only one man, there is only one way to carry the water. With the second they measured the stick carrying bucket and hanged the bucket exactly at the centre of the stick. Now the weight of the buck is shared equally by them. With third one, they put a rope and pulley system to bring the water up. Thus managers have to be innovative also.They need to make drastic changes depending on the changes in the system. 

They continuously improved the system with the addition of the resources and finally reached a set up where maximum efficiency is achieved. Thus continuous improvement is also a key to success.

Last but not the least is the team  work. As the number of men increase, output decreased i.e. number of buckets of water brought decreased. This happened because of lack of co-operation. When they started to work together as a team, their output increased. 

Thus small clip has shown us the importance of the role of a manager, continuous improvement in the system and team work.