Three Monks!!!

Plot

The story of three monks enlightens us with the theory of efficient team work. Story starts with a  young monk lives on hill top understands his individual responsibility and fetches water from river flowing downhill. On the next day when new monk joins and there lit up the conflict regarding the distribution of workload. In movie it is shown that initially single monk used to bring 2 buckets of water in a single trip. However when the second one joins him in the task, they started bringing only a single bucket of water. Here not only the volume of water that is the productivity decreases but also a problem of workload distribution pops up. So they solve this problem by measuring the stick and then tying the knot in exact middle in order to equally distribute the bucket load. Next day, when third monk joins in, it further more encourages conflict within the team members. Consequently, no one takes their own responsibility but expect others to do their work.

 On that day, no one fetch the water and they consume all the leftover water with them. When they were sound asleep, a rat tumbles the candle holder and curtain catches fire and soon it went out of control.  They tried to bring water from river but it was of no use and their house turns to ashes. 

Finally, the three monks were united with that incidence and make a concerted effort to bring in water as a team.

Lessons to learn from the Story

Objective measurement

To avoid the variety in subjective interpretation of quantifying terms such as "green", "hot", "large", "considerable", and "negligible", managers strive, where possible, to eliminate human senses by the use of standardized measuring tools like meter sticks, stopwatches, thermometers. This eliminates much of the perceptive variability of individual observers. The results of measurements are expressed on a numerical scale of standard units so that everybody else understands them the same way. The end result should be same whether one person or another person do same activity.

Inter-dependency

The extent to which a group’s work requires its member to interact with one another. In final solution of problem of carrying water to house uphill, the process is highly interdependent as compared to earlier ways of carrying water. Interdependency improves the productivity with much less effort of the system as can be seen in the movie. The same concept is applied to assembly lines wherein each forward step is highly dependent upon previous step.

Theory Z Managers

Theory Z represents a humanistic approach to management. Theory Z managers exhibit a strong, homogeneous set of cultural values characterized by homogeneity of values, beliefs, and objectives. They emphasize upon complete socialization of members to achieve congruence of individual and group goals. They rely on informal methods of control, but do measure performance through formal mechanisms. In present case monks are influenced by theory Z, wherein they are motivated by sense of beliefs and values towards their home and God.

Productivity

Productivity is an objective as well as scientific concept. It is a measure of ability to produce desired result. More specifically, productivity is the measure of how specified resources are managed to accomplish timely objectives as stated in terms of quantity and quality. Productivity may also be defined as an index that measures output (goods and services) relative to the input (labor, materials, energy, etc., used to produce the output). In our example of monk story the productivity can be different in following manner:

Methods	Effort	Productivity	Synergy
Three monks carrying 2 bucket individually	3b	6 buckets	No synergy
Two monks carrying 1 bucket and one monk carrying 2 bucket	b/2+b/2+b	3 buckets	Low Synergy
Three monks carrying two bucket for equal distance	b	2 buckets	Low synergy
Using Pulley system for carrying water	Lowest Possible Effort	Highest Productivity	High Synergy with high interdependency

Conclusion

This is ironical to a normal thought process of productivity getting increased as a result of increase in workforce. No doubt that productivity is going to increase, but it is increased at the cost of mutual understanding and proper planning by taking help of scientific approach.