The Three Monks.....

Three Monks

Three Monks is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. After the cultural revolution and the fall of the political Gang of Four in 1976, the film was one of the first animations created as part of the rebirth period. It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests.

Background

The film is based on the ancient 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 does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk. The film tells the story from the aspect of the buddhist bhikkhu.

Plot

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.

Awards

1. Won the outstanding film award at China's Ministry of Culture.
2. Won the Best animated film prize at the first Golden Rooster Awards in 1981.
3. Won four international awards including a Silver Bear for Short Film at the 32nd Berlin Film Festival in 1982.

Lessons

1.Teamwork 

Teamwork can lead to better decisions, products, or services. The quality of teamwork may be measured by analyzing the following six components of collaboration among team members: communication, coordination, balance of member contributions, mutual support, effort, and cohesion. Teamwork quality as measured in this manner correlated with team performance in the areas of effectiveness (i.e., producing high quality work) and efficiency (i.e., meeting schedules and budgets).

2. crisis management

The monks out of egoistic behavior did not fill water till the fire broke out and they were left high and dry! Had they not waited for the fire to break out and had kept some water, they would not have been in a crisis. The management lesson here is to have a proactive approach! Do not wait for fire to break out in the organization .

2. Work methods (efficient and effective methods)

How	One man carrying one bucket M1	One man carrying two bucket M2	Two men carrying one bucket M3	Three men carrying one bucket, assembly line M4
Effort	Most	< M1	< M2	< M3
output	1	2	1	1
Efficiency	Low output with more effort	More output with high effort, i.e. > M1	More output with Less effort i.e. > M2	Very high output with very less effort i.e. > M3

CONCLUSION

1. The productivity increases with the increase in the number of persons
2. There is more than 100% increase in the production with 100% increase in resources with good co-ordination
3. Disputes and conflicts are bound to arise but they need to be minimized so as to make the most out of the available resources
4. Team work and coordination is the key to success.