Management Lessons from the story of "The Three Monks"

Well please find below the video of the story of "The Three Monks" to understand better the management lessons which was taught by our professor Dr.Prasad as part of our learnings in Principles of Management.

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."

A similar quote on the same lines can be found in Telugu culture - "Three people should never start doing a piece of work, for, at the end, the work will still remain incomplete."

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

Scene 1, with a single monk:
Each monk has a capability of carrying 2 buckets at a time and performed his work very efficiently and his needs where also fulfilled when he carried 2 buckets of water. 

Scene 2, second monk arrival:
The requirement of water is increased since the number of people are increased. So they planned to get the water by collaborating with each other. So they carried 1 bucket of water and placed the bucket exactly at the center so that the work load is decreased.
Some of you might be in an assumption that this is inefficient since 2 people are carrying only 1 bucket (Initially I felt the same :) )

But, By Calculating the energy used in each case, the 2nd case was more efficient than the 1st.

Scene 3, third monk arrived:

Since everyone consumes equal amount of water no one is willing to get the water. Suddenly an emergency situation occurred when they realized the value of team work. They collaborated effectively and make the problem resolved.

Succeed through teamwork

Learnings:

1. The common disaster had brought about a drastic change in the attitudes of the three monks and made them work harmoniously towards the common goal
2. However, the importance of technology too need to be stressed here. Instead on one person running up and down the hill to fetch water, the three monks together devise a pulley mechanism to increase productivity and fulfill the needs of the monastery. This scene stresses the fact that technology plays a pivotal role in reducing the human effort and increasing efficiency
3. On a whole, the play conveys the behavior of human mind, some key managerial insights, importance of task sharing and effective planning, use of technology to reduce effort and need for increasing efficiency as well as effectiveness.
4. There is always a scope for improvement.
5. Team work will always lead to efficiency.
6. Team work helps in generation of new ideas.