DAY6: Three Monks

The story three monks is about the three monks who finds distribution of work difficult and thus end up losing their valuable asset and in the end realizes the need to work as a team. The story goes like this:

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 candleholder, 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.

Now, let us  define a term called productivity: it is the amount of  output generated per unit of effort taken.

Also, the amount of effort taken to perform a task depends on the method used(or the approach).

Now, let’s observe the work patterns of the monks in different situations

1Monk:

There are two ways to get the bucket filled: going with one bucket, or going with two buckets

Person	1	1
Bucket	1	2

The method to bring two buckets by 1 monk is by tying them on both ends of the rod, which makes the net effort 

minimum (zero). Thus this method is more suitable in case of 1 monk as it provides more water in lesser efforts.

2 Monks:

Now, these two monks can work in the following different ways:

Person	1,1	2	1,1
Bucket	1,1	1	2,2

Here, one person bringing one bucket takes more effort than one person bringing two buckets(as clarified in previous case). But two persons bringing one bucket makes the job more easier as the efforts are distributed( the only concern is that for brining 4 buckets they have to go four times whereas in case of one person bringing two buckets they have to go only time.

3 Monks:

Person	1,1,1	2,1	2,1	1,1,1
Bucket	1,1,1	1,1	1,2	2,2,2

Here, the last option seems very productive as three persons are bringing six buckets of water in just one round, but the method that monks used SHOT UP the productivity much higher, they innovated a new approach, they used a pulley system , one monk stood near the water source filling up the buckets and hooking them to a string, another monk lift the bucket via pulley and third monk took  the bucket from him and carried it home.

This innovative approach made them achieve an unprecedented productivity. The effort put in this approach is handful and the output received is unimaginable.

This sort of management is called as "Participative Management".

Analyzing this story further, the issues faced here were:

1.       Reluctance to work in a team

2.       Hand over the work to other, expecting others to complete the whole job

3.       Difficulty in negotiation

4.       Subjective measurements

5.       No disaster management measures

When the monk was alone, he was happy doing all the work himself, but when second monk came they find it difficult to negotiate the distribution of work. Even when they agreed to go together and fetch one bucket they find it difficult to lift the bucket, as their measurements were subjective, then they used a scale(a benchmark) to tie the bucket on the center. This bench marking made this job easier.

When the third monk arrived negotiation became more difficult and they end up doing no work, even when they felt the need for it (felt thirsty) they did not agree on working.

The roll of mouse: I see mouse as certain unexpected fallout coming on the way, certain things that often frustrates us unnecessarily diluting our focus on the job.

The fire burning the house could be seen as the sudden change in circumstances (in the market) which could devastate our survival (business survival) and to combat them we need disaster management steps  and more importantly an archive of resources earned during the normal days. The monks had no water that time, that is no archive of resources was with them, they had to go all way down to fetch the water.

Even at the time of fire, they were facing negotiation issues, which they somehow managed to overcome essentially because of urgency of the situation.

Working in a team could actually be a savior, this thing was realized to the monks after they somehow managed to overcome the fire, eventually they innovated an entirely different approach and their productivity reached the top.