Management Lessons from the story of 'Three Monks'

"Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
 Working together is success. "

           ~ Henry Ford

The film 'Three Monks' 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."

Gist:

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.

There are some important management lessons that can be taken from this story. In situations of disaster, coming together to work as a team may be normal. Working effectively as a team in normal conditions depicts management and organization in place. 

Management Lessons:

Process Innovation/Improvement

The three monks eventually come up with an innovative solution.The monk at the bottom fills the buckets , the middle monk works on pulley system and the third monk carries the water from pulley to monastery.

Productivity

The 3 monks working together later with a defined process in place are in a position to get more buckets of water with lesser effort compared to single person carrying two buckets or two persons carrying a single bucket.

Joint Decision making / Participative management

When two monks are carrying a bucket, there are conflicts around the load distribution. The two monks then use a scale to mark the centre. Here one monk measures and the other marks implying consensus among the two in the action.

Job Rotation

 

In a team it is important that significance of each job is appreciated and no conflicts arise among members around individual work. Job rotation can be implemented to avoid such feelings among team members. For example, duties of filling water, working on pulley and carrying bucket can be rotated among the 3 monks.

Segregation of Duties:

Clearly defined roles with mutual agreement brings in management without management. Overlooking individual performances is not necessary in such cases as a direct and immediate feedback can be obtained based on individual tasks. A delay in one task would hinder the other task. 

Responsibility

This story teaches a gentle, humorous lesson about responsibility. Three monks allow personal pride to interfere with the performance of daily tasks, each believing that the other two should be the ones to go downhill to fetch water. When a fire breaks out, however, they understand how silly they have been and work together to save the temple.

Cooperation

The story of the three monks teaches us that everyone is capable of being selfish, but doing so diminishes our ability to cooperate with one another. People must rise among themselves and see the group as whole. People must be deliberative in their collective decision making.

It can be concluded that individuals coming together may fail if a process is not in place.