Since our childhood we have learned many stories and tales that have taught us something. One such movie took me back on the learning spree. The movie I am talking about is 3 monks film.This animated feature film produced by a Chinese animation Film Studio in the 80s highlights few managerial teachings in overall, a different way.
Let’s first have a look at the amazing film:
The 3-Monks Film
Crew:
Directed by - A. Da
Written by - Pao Lei
Release Year - 1980
Awards Received:
Outstanding film award at the China's Ministry of Culture
Best animated film award at the Golden Rooster Award
Silver Bear award for short film
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." This animation does an excellent job of getting its point across without any spoken words, the audience who does not speak any Chinese can easily understand it just as good as Chinese.
Story-line:
A young monk(red) 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(blue) 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(yellow) 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.
The following management lessons can be inferred from the story:
Concept of Taylorism or Scientific Management must be used appropriately to assign the work and increase productivity
Teamwork boosts the productivity while working for a common goal.
Whenever there is more than one person involved, Disputes are bound to occur.
Solution to a problem will evolve over time depending on the available resources
Work must be divided on the basis of talent so that all of them bring synergy to the system. ( 1 + 1 = 11 )
Attitude of everyone in the team is important and it ultimately determines the fate of the organisation
Team work and coordination is the key to success
My past experience with NTPC has taught me the importance of team work, coordination and synergy in a team in many situations. One such situation is as depicted: There were 3 of us working for a project which required anyone of us to be present 24 hours, 6 days a week and the project required a lot of documentation work. Rather than fighting on who will come for the night shift and who will look after documentation, my manager identified our strengths and liking for night shifts by a team member. He allotted the night shifts to the interested person and documentation work to the one who was good at it. The project successfully completed on time and all of us were appreciated by the site heads.
So the common learning that came out, both from this movie and my personal experience is:
Teamwork
"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships"
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