Introduction
It is a Chinese animated short film produced by the Shanghai
Animation Film Studio. It is also
known as The Three Buddhist Priests. It
has been shown to us in our latest lecture which brought subtle concepts of
organization management. How Teamwork and Productivity go hand in hand. So, let
us start with the story of the movie first:-
3 MONKS - PART 1
3 MONKS - PART 2
The Story
Movie starts with a little monk who lives at a Buddhist Monastery
at the top of a hill. Every day, he used to fetch water from a river at the
foothills. The first day, the little monk used to carry two pales on either
side of the stick. He used to do this in a hassle free manner thinking it as
his responsibility.
The second day,
another monk came up to stay at the Monastery. The little monk offered the left
over water to the second monk. So, the second monk decided to fetch water down
the hill but took the little monk to go along with him. Now, then lies the CONFLICT MANAGEMENT between the two, as
the little monk being shorter, tries to raise the bar up making the bucket to
slip over to the other monk’s end and the other doing the same on his end. So,
there was a conflict in deciding the responsibility of carrying the bucket
among them. Finally, the decision was made with the help of a ruler which
divided the stick in two equal parts.
The third day,
third monk joined them. After drinking
the water left at the monastery, no one was willing to go down and fetch the
water. Incidentally, a rat came to the monastery and knocked the candle holder lead
to a devastating fire in the monastery. The
three monks then united forgetting the animosity, distributed the tasks to put
out the fire by fetching water from the river, where one monk would fetch the
water from the river into the bucket, the other would pull it up through a
pulley and third monk would then receive the water for storage and handover the
second bucket. This increased the
productivity as they worked as a team.
Was there any
alternative among the monks to fetch water as a team?
As discussed in the class, they could follow any of the following
alternatives:-
a) Work could have been divided on an alternative basis,
where every monk could go down hills and fetch water in the buckets on
alternative days.
b) Make a point at the middle of the stick and keep
following the process throughout the week.
c) Divide the work into half among themselves.
But none of the points had been adopted by the monks due to
lack of Teamwork and standard practices which were not followed by them.
So, what we have
learned from the Film?
1) PRODUCTIVITY
It is an economic term defined as output per unit of input. Workplace
productivity is about how firms can utilize labour and skills, innovation,
technology and organizational structure to improve the quantity and quality of
their output. For e.g. in the above example, if two monks would have carried
one bucket instead of single monk carrying two buckets, would have increased
the productivity.
2) TEAM BUILDING
Any team would be successful if each and every team member has
mutual understanding with each other. Many organizations prefer teams to
complete certain projects or assignments that are difficult to be handled by a
single employee. When the project is under a team, it is certain to reach the
pinnacle. Taking example from the
movie, when the fire occurred, the three monks got together, shared a common
goal, forgot their dispute and worked together to save their monastery.
3) SYNERGY
Synergy is two or more things functioning together to produce a
result not independently obtainable. Have you ever witnessed a wining
sports team or a well-rehearsed orchestra and then felt the commitment and
energy the team demonstrated? What you saw was more than just teamwork – it was
team synergy, a phenomenon that occurs when a team achieves greater results
than the sum of its parts. Using learning instruments, hands-on activities, and
an interactive team simulation, teams gain a clearer sense of direction,
clarify roles and responsibilities, improve operating processes and bolster
both interpersonal and inter team relationships.
No comments:
Post a Comment