Three Monks - A Movie with Management Lessons

Background :

                    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.

                    A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has one daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. He tries to share the job with another monk, but the carry pole 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.

                    Watch the following video for more clarity.

                    In order to understand the management concepts better, I would be taking you through the three cases one at a time.

1) Only one monk

                    This is a classic case of self-reliance. The monk has no one to look up for help and he brings two buckets of water daily by balancing the buckets on the two ends of the carry pole. He himself forms the fulcrum of the carry pole.

                    In this case the monk remains contended as he is the only person utilizing the resources for which he puts in his energy.

2) Two Monks

                    In this case the second monk brings water a couple of times to quench the thirst of both the monks. But then he realizes that he is the only one doing all the work. Thus they decide to work together to get the water.

                    The arrangement they follow is similar to the first case the only difference being that the two monks occupy the places taken by the buckets in the first case while they bring only one bucket this time attached at the fulcrum.

                    The only difficulty this time is that one of them is taller than the other. This makes it difficult for them to balance the carry pole. They sort this out by accurately measuring the fulcrum point.

3) Three Monks

                    In the third case, the fatter monk drinks all the water which irritates the other two monks. The 3rd monk brings water a couple of times but then realizes that no one else is working. This way all three of them refuse to contribute leading to starvation at the monastery.

                    One day a rat causes arson at the monastery but the monks are devoid of water to put of the fire. It is then that they realize the importance of working together. They device a pulley to haul water up to the monastery thus showcasing the importance of team work.

Lessons Learnt :

1) Team Work - 

                    The movie imparts important lessons in team work. Though every individual is important in a team, it is the larger picture which should be envisioned. 

2) Accountability and Responsibility - 

                    When a person is given the responsibility of carrying out the task, he should understand that he himself is the only person accountable for the same. As in this case, the monks were accountable for the fire at the monastery as it was their responsibility to look after it.

3) Combination of Hard Work and Smart Work -

                    As seen in the last case, the monks did smart work by building a pulley to haul the bucket up to the monastery thereby demonstrating that although hard work can take one places, smart work coupled with hard work could take you there faster. Smart work saves time and energy which can be used for other productive work.

                    So these were the management lessons from the movie "Three Monks". I would be back with more real-life cases which impart management lessons. Till then, happy learning and happy blogging !