"Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success. "
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success. "
~ Henry Ford
Teachings from Zen
are usually short and delightful. This short movie is a beautiful adaptation of
a 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. I found it inspiring and really worth to ponder about. Although it does not contain any dialogues
but it still imparts some important lessons in management.
Method 1: One monk fetches the water
The monk fetches the water faithfully and
regularly every day. As his needs are limited he doesn’t mind carrying two
buckets with a stick on his shoulders.
Method 2: Two monks fetch the water
When the second monk moves in then the first
monk thinks of distributing his work. Initially they both fight over how to
carry water but later on they find a solution. They find a pole and jointly fetch a single bucket of water every day. Although they work as a team but it seems as if
they are not satisfied with each other.
Method 3: Three monks working as team to fetch out water
When the third monk
moves in, both monks try to delegate entire work to the newcomer. Infact, third
monk fetches the water once but he consumes all by himself. After arguing with
each other constantly over whose turn it is to fetch the water, nobody goes to
fetch the water. No water gets fetched even after they all are thirsty.
Continuous
Improvement
Method 1 and Method 2
are the examples of using old techniques but continuous improvements over time.
It leads to better efficiency and process improvement.
Productivity
Method 2 brings us to an old debate Individual Vs
Team Productivity. As per productivity analysis method 2 is more productive than
method 1. To make it clearer, here is a table illustrating the productivity
statistics in either case. Assuming 1 Man uses 1 unit of energy to lift 1
bucket.
Event
|
Output (No. of buckets)
|
Input(Worker Energy units)
|
Productivity = Output/Input
|
1 Man – 2 buckets
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
2 Men – 1 bucket
|
1
|
0.5
|
2
|
Innovation
Transition from method 2 to method 3 is innovation. When the monastery is on fire they realise
that it is better to think in terms of team goals rather than individualistic
goals. The monk at the bottom fills the buckets, the middle monk works on
pulley system and the third monk at the top douses the fire with water in the
bucket. This shows difficult situation inspires ingenious solutions.
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’ve been and work together to save the temple.
Work
for each other, no selfishness
The great Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, once wrote "I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea." 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.
Pursuit
of Excellence
Increase in excellence directly leads to the
increase in effective productivity. Excellence can be defined as the product of
efficiency and effectiveness. Moving from method 2 to method 3 is the increase
in excellence. In the story there is no dearth of talent as all three monks are
equally capable, but still as a team they struggle.
Conclusion
The moral of the story, sane group can make bad
group decisions if the group dynamics is bad.
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