The Three Monks

Three Monks

The three monks video was shown to us to illustrate the significance of team work. The video emphasizes the importance of team work and it also shows how sometimes a team is of no use when team member do not recognise their responsibilities.
The video starts with one monk. He finds that there is no water in the house. So he goes out to take water taking a stick and two buckets. He brought two buckets of water in one go and he was quite relaxed with it as he knew he is the only one in the house and it's his responsibility to bring the water. This process went on as long as he was alone in the home.
Now the second monk entered the home. Now the problem arose as who will go to bring water. They found a solution that they will bring water together. But as they went out to bring water there was a conflict between them on division of work as each of them was trying to push the bucket on the other side to reduce the load on him. This is the biggest problem when people work in team as how to divide the work. Therefore before forming a team one must learn how to work in a team. One must be made aware of his responsibilities. One should also recognise his or her strengths and then work should be divided accordingly. In this case several solutions were proposed by the students for dividing the work. Some of them are:

1. To go alternately and individually and bring two buckets of water in one go.
2. To go together and carry one bucket of water in one go.

Now the best solution that illustrate "equal division of work" at its best was to go and bring water together.
This has manifold advantages which are as follows:

1. They learnt how to work in a team.
2. They learnt equal division of work while working in a team
3. They recognised their responsibilities.
4. The effort introduced is less. One will not tire as they will bring water together rather than doing it alone. So there will be work satisfaction and at the same time they will know the significance of working in a team.

Now they decided to measure the length of the road to share the work equally. Again the problem arose as they did it by their palms and the palm length of one monk was greater than the other.
Here scientific principles came into picture. The work can not be divided arbitrarily by using any method. There must a be a standard and a scientific approach which can be used to divide it satisfactorily.
Now they measured the road with a stick and in this way they reached the mid point of stick which was the point where bucket will be kept. This was agreed by both of them.

Now enters the third monk.

He came and drank all the water. He was supposed to go out and bring the water but he didn't do that. Now  again tension arose between them as who will go and fetch the water.

Here comes into picture the lack of team work in them. They didn't know how to work as team. As a result no one went to fetch water for the whole day and they were seen fighting for water.

Now the turning point........
Fire broke out in the home and to blow off the fire,suddenly all started running to fetch water. They brought water irrespective of any thought,who is going how many times and they were able to blow off the water.
Now they recognised that if they will work in a team,no problem will arise and each task can be made easy if they are together.

Now they all came together and came out with an innovative idea to bring water at the top of mountain from the river below. They set up a pulley arrangement on which a rope was laid and bucket was attached at one end of it.

One of the monk was at below to fill the bucket with water. Second was pulling the rope to take the bucket up and the third was putting the water into the home. They the whole work became much more easy. The effort introduced was very less and every one was satisfied with his work.

The whole work was equally divided in this case. If any of them does not work, the task can not be performed and here in this method is lied the whole significance of team work.

This method helped them to achieve:

1. Better management

2. Increased productivity

3. Interdependence

4. Better communication

5. Team work

This is what the modern management is where everything is well defined and well organised. This has lead to increased satisfaction among the people and a higher productivity.