The Three Monk Story

     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 film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk. The film tells the story from the aspect of the Buddhist bhikkhu.

      

Description of Story:

    On the high mountain there is a temple. There is a long distance from the temple to the river which is located at the foot of the mountain. One monk used to live there. He had to walk a long way to fetch water, but he did it every day. One day, another monk appeared in the temple. Now who’s to fetch water became a regular argument between them. Luckily they found a solution: they carried water together. Then the 3rd monk became a member of the temple, which brought complexity, because they all thought the others should go and get water. They suffered from thirst, but nobody still did not want to move until a mouse ate the candle, and the flame started to burn down their temple. They worked together and transported water from the river and finally saved their temple.

   "Without Co-operation, one monk can fetch two buckets of water ,two monks only be able to fetch 1 bucket of water and three monks fetch no water at all."

    Although, as a manager, one should focus on Technical factors as they are the important ones and make an organization stand out from its competitors:

Human Factors:

1.       Sharing Responsibility: The story tells us that each monk is capable to fetch 2 buckets of water when working alone. But, while working together each one tries to avoid work and expects the other monk to do it. In organizations as well employees might develop prejudice towards certain type of work and face the similar problem. Hence, the important point is to understand the importance of working as a team and sharing the responsibilities fairly.  

2.       Cooperation: It is an important factor and is seen lacking in the story of 3 monks until the fire breaks up. But disasters are not a everyday thing and hence it is expected that cooperation should exist in normal conditions also.

Technical Factors:

1. Scale/Tools: As seen in the movie, a scale was used to evenly divide the load among the two persons.

It shows how the use of standardized tools helps to avoid controversies and incorporate fair practices.

2. Productivity: It is necessary to gauge the productivity of employees in order to analyse the performance of an organization. Hence, it becomes an important parameter and the system should be designed to maximize productivity.

 

3. Participative Management: It involves all the stakeholders in the decision making process. As in case of a movie, while dividing the load of the bucket one monk did the scaling and the other did marking. It involves both the parties and avoids any conflicts that may arise at some later point of time. 

So concluding “Great things can be achieved by Co-operation”