3 Chinese Monks

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.


The film depicts the comparisons of the different attitudes of the three monks when staying alone, staying with one other, and staying with two others.

Overview of the story:

Scene 1:

There was a small temple on a mountain and a little monk in the temple. His daily routine was shouldering water, chanting sutras, knocking the wooden fish, adding water to the holy water bottle on the table honoring the Goddess of Mercy, and watching over the mice from stealing food at night. His life was smooth and comfortable.

Scene 2:

Soon after, a tall monk came. He drank half of the jar’s water as soon as he arrived at the temple, so the little monk asked him to fetch water. The tall one thought it was unfair for him to fetch water alone, so he asked the young one to do it together. They could only carry one bucket a time, and they would only feel content when the bucket was placed in the middle of the shoulder pole. Anyway, they still had water to drink in this way.

Scene 3:

Then, a fat monk came. He wanted to drink, but there was no water in the jar. The short monk and the tall one asked him to fetch water by himself. He carried a bucket of water, and drank it up immediately. From then on, nobody would fetch water, so they had no water.

Scene 4:

Everyone chanted his own sutras and knocked his own wooden fish. As nobody would add water to the holy water bottle, the plant in the bottle withered soon. At night, a mouse came out stealing, but everyone pretended not to see it. As a result, the mouse was so rampant that it knocked over the candle-holder and caused a fire. Only thus did the three monks make a concerted effort to put out the fire, and finally awaken. After that, they started hanging together and the temple never lacked water again. 

Management teachings from the story:

Ego

Ego has no place when you are working in a team, we saw that 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.

An ego is a heavy weight to carry around if it isn't kept in check. This is magnified tremendously when you have two, four, ten or even more egos trying to work in a group.  This is then further magnified when you have two, four, ten or more groups/departments in an organisation or sports team.  Making sure the group or groups are all energetically aligned will become recognised as the future of group dynamics. Jealousies, envy, wanting other people to fail are real emotions that plague our teams and organisations. By correcting these issues a happier partnership and a more efficient, profitable work environment is observed.

Synergy

We saw in the story that when 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.

A synergy is where different entities cooperate advantageously for a final outcome. Simply defined, it means that the effect of the whole is greater than the sum of the effects of the individual parts. Although the whole will be greater than each individual part, this is not the concept of synergy. If used in a business application it means that teamwork will produce an overall better result than if each person was working toward the same goal individually.

Every problem has simple solution

In the end the problem faced by 3 monks of bringing water to the temple from the river by going downhill was solved with a simple solution of building a pulley.

We can also relate it to job specialization, the whole work was divided into parts and each monk was doing his part.

How many times have you caught yourself saying that there could be no other solution to a problem – and that that problem leads to a dead end? How many times have you felt stumped knowing that the problem laying before you is one you cannot solve. No leads. No options. No solutions. 

Did it feel like you had exhausted all possible options and yet are still before the mountain – large, unconquerable, and impregnable? When encountering such enormous problems, you may feel like you're hammering against a steel mountain. The pressure of having to solve such a problem may be overwhelming.

But rejoice! There might be some hope yet!

With some creative problem-solving techniques you may be able to look at your problem in a different light. And that light might just be the end of the tunnel that leads to possible solutions.



First of all, in the light of creative problem-solving, you must be open-minded to the fact that there may be more than just one solution to the problem. And, you must be open to the fact that there may be solutions to problems you thought were unsolvable.