Three Monks, No Water

The Three Monk No Water story is a famous chinese story. Based on an old Chinese saying, “three monks, no water,” this story teaches a gentle, humorous lesson about responsibility. 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. The video link is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_V4PnqIkUc

Read this only when you have watched the video else the lessons will not be that effective as it was in my case.

Synergy

The three monk story tells us something about synergy. But the question is what is synergy?

Wikipedia says that Synergy is two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable. The term synergy comes from the Greek word synergia συνεργία from synergos, συνεργός, meaning "working together". In short when two or more people come together to do a thing wonderfully and to an extent better than they individually can, that is synergy. Mathematically 1+1 = 2 . All know this. but this still not the best you can get from 1 and 1. When synergy takes over then 1+1>2 comes into reality. It is my role as pragmatist manager to ensure that synergy is created where teamwork is involved. Leader should be able to inspire people to work together in sync with the objectives as well as complementing one another. In the three monk story the end highlights the importance and the effectiveness of synergy. When they three decide to distribute and delegate the work among themselves they do better work. 

Creative Problem Solving

When face to face with the problem of drawing water from the lake that is quite far off from the monastery the monks devise new methods. Initially the first monk starts to travel the distance on his own to get water. But it turns out to be tiring for him. When the second monk joins him, both of them go out together to get water and through mutual understanding they come to implementing a better plan of tying the bucket to the mid of the pole that they were using to fetch water. But creative solutions become mediocre in no time. This becomes clear when the two monks have a quarrel while carrying out the job. Even in real life disputes between the participants can lead to work getting stalled.The Challenge is – To apply every time, all the time “Ever Creative Mind” in solving the stock of

problems is the principle applicable here for managers. When the monks do this they get the results immediately. This way they were working more efficiently than before as they conserve more energy. But the actual creativity comes out when three delegate the work between themselves as well as when they upgrade to a totally new solution of using pulley and bucket to fetch water.

Thus the lesson that i drew here was that to be a successful and effective manager i need to :

• Learn Problem solving through practice
• Need to develop the art and science of developing solution
• Solutions need to be drawn keeping in mind the constraints that are there

We can see in the picture here that creative problem solving is a cyclical process. The first stage is exploration of the challenge. The steps involved are -
Objective Finding - Identify Goal, Wish or Challenge

Fact Finding - Gather Data

Problem Finding - Clarify the Problem

The second stage is Generation of Ideas which deals with Idea Finding - Generate Ideas.

The next stage is Preparing for action which involves Solution Finding – Select and Strengthen Solutions and Acceptance Finding – Plan for Action. 

Productivity

The wikipedia definition of Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. 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.

But in general terms it means getting more work or similar work done more effectively using the same resources. Here in the story at first the monk tries to carry water all by himself. He possesses the necesary discipline and skill to do that. So he is able to carry two buckets a day. When he finds a partner in the other monk the workload gets reduced as he is able to get more number of buckets with the same effort. This is called increase in productivity. This happens when people work together in the right direction. However, in the end when three monks designate different set of jobs for each other in the process, they help add accuracy and efficiency to the job. This is the best example of achieving higher productivity through innovation and co-ordination at the same time.

Work methods comparison:   
  

	Method I	Method II	Method III
Members	One Monk	Two Monks	Three Monks
Work tools and work method	Two baskets Long stick hanging two buckets  two ends of the long stick..	One basket Long stick hanging  one bucket in the middle	Three baskets Rope, Kuppe, and pulling water bucket on pulli
Input  - Effort by monks  ( Units in Jouls)  ( Esti..)	100 Jouls    by One person	50 Jouls by two persons together	Total effort together by the three monks in this method is almost                            ' INSIGNIFICANT'.
Output - Water	2 baskets	One basket	The output ( number of baskets of water )  that the method can fetch is almost   ' SO MUCH WATER'
Productivity Measure:            ( Input / Output)	100 J / 2 = 50 J per basket of water	50 J / 2 = 25 J per basket of water	Insignificant effort per basket of water
Nature of Member Roles	Independent	Somewhat  Interdependent	Very much Interdependent
Monks Life philosophy@ monastry	Life is misery and Death is the solution @ This is evident as shown  in the film the monk is physically exhausted and gets in to  sleep once he gets water from the pond.	Life some how can be managed to make it worth living ..  @ This is evident as shown in the film the monks engage in  more productive prayers. Monks are shown not sleeping as much as they  used to do earlier.	Life is Fun and even monks can have blissful life..  @ This is evident as shown in the film that the monks  are happy and blissful to work together.

Some of the observations with respect to the video are -
Organizational Excellence = Organizational Efficiency X Organizational Effectiveness

1. Three different sizes of people -  Short, tall, and obese monks are shown in the film.. Why three characters are made into three different sizes ? Why not one size of all monks ? What are the implications of a variety of people in building and managing modern  large organisations ? 

In life we all will come across different kinds of people in an organisation with different traits and skills. We need to open our minds to all kinds of possibilities in such situations and try to get maximum out of the opportunities in such cases. We need to synchronise and synergise the organisational needs and get a good output.

2. In the film, it was shown that the three monks have come across THREE different  creatures ( Tortoise, Honey bee, and a fish )  on their way to monastery. They also dealt these creatures very gently and  humanely . First monk - took care of a tortoise which he walked over it. Second monk took care of Honey Bee which was chasing him while he was walking . Third monk took care of a fish which entered in to his shoe.
What is the significance of these parts of the film for HRM in big organizations  ? Is there any meaning  for showing the monks this way ?

The monks are human and care for the surroundings. Similarly all of us have something good and virtuous in us. We, in-spite of the virtue, make mistakes and get into fights. This should be avoided in an organisation.

3. To put off the fire in the monastery  that occurred, three monks worked very hard as shown in the film. It so happens that at  one  time in a hurry to through the water on to the fire, the  tallest monk without noticing picks up the short monk in his hands  with his shirt and tries to throw him into the fire. It was shown as a mistake. The  three monks realize this blunder and feel sorry for  if its dangers if the same  would have happen .   .
What is the significance of this part of the film for the overall theme of the film ?

The organisation is a place where the responsibility on us is huge. we are expected to deliver in critical situations. and being humans we tend to make mistakes and falter at the most important step. This will not occur if proper planning and co-ordination exists.

4.  In the film,  there was conflict between the two monks ( - Example  - Small and long monk ) .
- Two monks propose two different methods to solve the problem .. Each one try to use ones own hand to measure equidistant point on the pole. Obviously the other monk does not  accept the idea..
- Later on they use a scale to measure the length   to identify the fulcrum on the pole, which both accept it. 
- One monk measures the distance on the pole,  and the other monk  marks the point on the pole with a chalk. 
What is the significance of the above  in managing the massive organizations ( say 50 K  employees ) ? Which part of  the Personnel policies of any given organizations touch this part of the film ?

In an organisation with 50000 employees we can see multitude of internal conflicts happening and personnel management is needed to promote harmony and growth. Conflict resolution is needed to resolve the petty and serious issues that come up. Every employee must be heard and he/she must feel that justice has been delivered at the end.