Individuality or Unity?

It was Saturday afternoon and I was still sleeping, enjoying the long hours of sleep after a long time.  I was happy as we don’t have any classes scheduled for today and tomorrow. I quickly brushed my teeth and went to EDP 1-2 Mess to have my brunch and it was again the same Dal and Aloo. I don’t understand why Potatoes are served 3 times a day  in the mess/Mumbai.  I would have seen Potatoes in all varities Aloo Gobi, Aloo Mutter, Aloo Jeera, Aloo Palak, Aloo Gobi Mutter Punjabi, Aloo Tikki, Aloo Kurkure, Aloo Chips, Aloo Paratha, Aloo Gobi Paratha, Vada Pav, Aloo Samosa and the list is endless.

Back to my hostel room and opened my Laptop to check the mails. I found we have received a mail from Dr. Mandi and asked us to see the film “Three monks in Budhist monsatry” before attending the session.

 Three monks in Buddhist monastery

Story
A young monk lives a simple and peaceful life in a temple on the top of a hill. He has one daily task that irks him: he has to haul two buckets of water up the hill. He tries to share the job with another monk who comes to the temple later, but the carrying pole the monks use is only long enough for one bucket. The arrival of a third monk prompts everyone to expect that someone else will take on the chore. Consequently, no one fetches water though everybody is thirsty. At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candle holder, leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. Since then they understand the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.

Awards
Three Monks, directed by late cartoonist A Da, won the best animation film in the first Golden Rooster Awards. Established in 1981 by the China Film Association, the award is so named because 1981, according to Chinese lunar calendar, was the year of rooster. The yearly awards are decided by a special committee composed of film experts.

Three Monks also won a Silver Bear for Short Film at the 32nd Berlin Film Festival in 1982.

Analysis
Let us analyse this film into three segments
Segment 1: Two buckets of water carried by a single monk
Segment 2: Two monks carrying a bucket of water each
Segment 3: Team work by the three monks to put out the fire in temple

Segment 1
The monk was happy with his life and has not faced any issues. His daily routine was shouldering water, chanting sthothras, 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.
Learning: This depicts about the individual effort and satisfaction derived from the outcome. When one is responsible and focused on what he has to do, he can see no issues ahead if his work results in his satisfaction.

Segment 2:
Both the monks (shorter and taller monks) go to the pond for fetching water to the temple. Each of them tries to pass on the weight to other to relieve from the burden and thereby making the task harder. The shortest monk tries to demarcate the line of division with the help of fingers. The tallest Monk contradicts and reiterates the same with his fingers. The shortest monk fixes the issue by using the ruler to identify the line of division with mutual consent.
Learning:
• Always use the standardized tools of measurement, which is universally accepted
• The work has to be designed in such a way that it is divided equally among the members.
• All the members of the team have to contribute and mutually decide the terms of work order.

Segment 3:
The temple catches fire. The three monks (Shortest, tallest and fattest) had to douse the fire off. Each of them works together to set the fire off and were successfully in doing it thus elevating the teamwork.
Learning
• Team work is important than individual performance. Though each of the priests had the ability to get the water from pond, they could not set the fire off individually without seeking help from others.
• The monks have divided the entire line of action into 3 equal parts. Thus work has to be divided equally.
• When you work collectively as a team, you can generate more practical ideas

Management Lessons
We can relate a few management lessons from the story:

1. Teamwork does enhances the efficiency in the working of task
The 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 have been and work together to save the temple. So, from this we learn that in an organization and in a team, its important to take personal vanity out of the equation and to perform the duty at hand so that there is no regret later. A Manager has to take a note of this and check for any signs of work-delegation to others in his team.

2.  Disputes tend to arise when there is more than one person involved
When the third monk went downhill to fetch water for the first time, he came back and drank water all by himself, exhibiting a selfish tendency not aligned to the goals of the team ie. To have water stored at all times. This led to further animosity among the 3 monks and the task never got completed. Hence even in an organization, selfish motives should be discouraged. A team working towards a common goal is the best direction to be heading to!

3. Scientific and objectives measurements and instruments should be used to resolve the conflict
Complex Problems, Simple Solutions - This is the motto of decision making for any manager or team member in an organization. When the first two monks were trying to push the weight of the bucket towards each other, there were a lot of other possible alternates given by others too like:

• One person getting water one day
• Two persons more bucket
• Two sticks, four buckets
• Divide the work in half
• Get a motor and connect a pipe
• Attitude problem - Brain wash
But in an organization, the above mentioned alternates cannot be applied. We have to think rationally and not in a bounded territory.

4. The most efficient method to solve a problem evolves over a period of time
When posed with a question from our professor, that whether the two monks should get 2 buckets on alternate days or a bucket shared by both of them, most of us answered "Alternate Days" and by now it's easy to guess that it was the wrong answer because it was driven by common sense and not Productivity analysis according to which getting 1 bucket shared by the two monks is a much better proposition. Just to make it clearer, here is a table illustrating the productivity statistics in either case. Assuming 1 Man uses 1 unit of energy to lift 1 bucket.

Event	Output (No. of buckets)	Input(Worker Energy units)	Productivity = Output/Input
1 Man – 2 buckets	2	2	1
2 Men – 1 bucket	1	0.5	2

5. Teamwork and team interest should take precedence over the personal interest
Teamwork can lead to better decisions, products, or services. The quality of teamwork may be measured by analysing the following six components of collaboration among team members: communication, coordination, balance of member contributions, mutual support, effort, and cohesion. Teamwork quality as measured in this manner correlated with team performance in the areas of effectiveness (i.e., producing high quality work) and efficiency (i.e., meeting schedules and budgets).

6. Experiences in crisis management comes handy to come up with new innovative methods to solve a problems
 The monks out of egoistic behaviour did not fill water till the fire broke out and they were left high and dry! Had they not waited for the fire to break out and had kept some water, they would not have been in a crisis. The management lesson here is to have a proactive approach! Do not wait for fire to break out in the organization (Fire is a metaphor for something ungainly in the organization)

7. Attitude of each team member determines the fate of the task and decides for the success rate
When the two monks were trying to divide the load of the bucket equally, the taller monk used his bigger hands to show that the bucket should be hung closer to the first monk, but the presence of a measuring instrument helped them get the exact center and resolved the problem. Hence it is important for a team and a manger to have the right attitude.

8. Synergistic roles: Individual sums become bigger than what was there individually
 To put out the fire each monk panicked and tried his best to run down to the river and bring the bucket full of water. But this process was long and tiring, and also had too many glitches on the road. So it proved to be ineffective.

Coordinated effort dosed of fire very easily and without being tired.

Productivity is Important. Productivity is about how well an organization converts resource inputs into goods or services. Workplace productivity is about how firms can utilize labor and skills, innovation, technology and organizational structure to improve the quantity and quality of their output.

Basically it's about exploring all the ways that can make a working environment more efficient.

Why is productivity important?

• Basis for improvements in real incomes and economic well-being.
• Monetary policy (inflationary pressures)
• Fiscal policy (financing of health, education, welfare)
• Slow productivity growth = conflicting demands for distribution of income more likely


THE BIG QUESTION - HOW TO RESOLVE DISPUTES AND WORK TOWARDS A COLLECTIVE GOAL?

CONCLUSION

From the above video analysis, we have come to the following conclusion :
• The productivity increases with the increase in the number of persons
• There is more than 100% increase in the production with 100% increase in resources with good co-ordination
• One monk carrying water every day will become boring after a while but two monks carrying water will not be boring and productivity will not be hampered
• Disputes and conflicts are bound to arise but they need to be minimized so as to make the most out of the available resources
• Team work and coordination is the key to success

• Synergy is the magic word here!