Three Monks

L04

The Three Monk Story-Management View

 Background:

Three monks is a Chinese animated feature film produces by Shanghai Animation film studio.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.

Watch the video before moving on:




First Monk(Lone runner):

The first monk sees a monastery in bad condition. Young and full of enthusiasm, he decides to fetch the water and improve the conditions there. He brings two buckets of water from downhill and continue to do so without any complaint. Soon fatigue sets in as all the burden is on him and there is no one to share it.

This represents the overburdening of resource in a organization.In Initial stage, new employees are full of enthusiasm and returns are good, but as time goes on if the burden is not shared, the same employee no matter how good will start losing the energy and returns will be less.

Its necessary that organization take care that employees should not be overburdened.

Two Monks(Team):
A second monk comes to monastery. He is welcomed by the first one, and water is offered. The first one is happy to see that now someone is there and burden can be shared. As the time goes on, first one tries to establish his superiority over the second and differences arise between them.

Same thing happens in organization when one tries to finish his duties by forcing them on other associate. This can start a cold war among team members and productivity is severely hampered.

Important lesson-there should be rules in company not rulers.

Three Monks:

After sometime a third monk joins. He is also welcomed by the other two and offered water. He drinks the water available but when the time comes for refill he refuses to do so. Now the other two also stop doing the work and again cold war starts among three.

Such things are common in organizations, its up to the Lead(Manager) to resolve such kind of issues and maintain harmony among the team members.

In the tale same is done by "Hand of God". At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candle holder, 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.

Management lessons:

Broadly the learning can be dived into two parts.

H  Co-operation

U  Synergy and Team Work

M Positive behavior followed by negative

A  Ego

N

Technical:

Process Improvement:Most important part of Manager. Systematic approach to help an organization optimize its underlying processes to achieve more efficient results.

  Method: Its important what methods are used by the employees to achieve the desired results.If new methods are there, manager should identify them and make effort to bring those onto organization.

Work Division:Overburdening of employees can prove fatal for organization. Work should be divided efficiently  and SMART goals should be set to monitor the performance.

Behavior: To be Normal in abnormal conditions.

Joint Decision Making:Standards should be set by taking the advice of all. As mentioned earlier, there should be rules not rulers in organization.


Major Learning:

1.In a organization there is no better work, every work is important.

2.As five fingers are not alike, every team consists of people with different qualities and attributes.For team these differences needs to be channelized.

3.There should be standards rules not rulers in organization.

4.Importance of Technology in Management.

Tower Exercise

L02&03

After the first lecture, I expected something new for the next one and it was there.Dr Mandi brought small wooden blocks for teaching the difference between old and new management.

Now the exercise was to build tower with single base from the blocks.He asked us to guess the height(number of blocks) of tower, which one can built using both hands.There was lot of guessing 15,18,25.... until he asked us to bet on it.Now since one has to bet students were cautious, one guy said 20 and tried his luck.

He did well and achieved his target, to be precise 22.Now it was time for the same task in different way, team work. Pair of three, one worker blindfolded, one manager instructor and one CEO. The worker had to use only one hand and manager cannot touch the blocks.
So what will be the guess now, more or less than the previous one. Again guessing went one 10,12,15...until bet was there. Three guys put bet to construct of 23, one more than the previous one.

Slowly the tower was building, with guidance from the manager. The result surprised us all. 25 with Team work.

 Now to discuss the two scenarios:
 1.In the first one, a single person was working alone craftsman (old management) , no dependency on others. The satisfaction,skill level is high.
2.In this Management is involved.Manager decides the strategy and productivity is on higher side.

Parameters	Old Management	Modern Management
Productivity	Less	More
Skill	More skilled	Less
Satisfaction level	More	Less
Work	single person handles large amount	Less
Work division	Not clear	clear
Time	More	Less

What I learnt from the exercise, is how to set goals and have a zeal to achieve them.The goal setting process must produce what are known as SMART goals. Which can be stated as:
S-Specific: should be well defined and easily understandable. In this case tower with single base needs to be created.
M-Measurable: goal must be within measurable limits.Without limits its difficult to track the progress. In this case the height of tower lets say 20 blocks.
A-Attainable: goal should be attainable under given circumstances. In this case tower of 20 blocks can be erected.
R-Realistic: A realistic goal must be there. unrealistic goals can hamper the the morale of employees. In this case after first scenario, it was looking possible that 22+ tower can be made.
T-Timely: a exercise or project without deadline can create unnecessary burden on the management. 

Now If I put the SMART goals strategy to tower building exercise,it can be seen that participants had well defined goals i.e. construction of tower , an attainable goal of 18 blocks according to historic data available and re-evaluate to 22 blocks height after realizing  the potential.

In reality it is expected from management not only to set goals,but also create environment ,build confidence,provide motivation to employees to help them to achieve goals.
Dr Mandi said  “great managers are masters of 'Pygmalion'.

The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform.
 As the organization expands, it face many obstacles.There must be Proper HR policies, to address the grievances of employees in time.  

Takeaway:
 1.Grab the opportunity when it comes.
 2.Keep morale of team high by motivation and expectation(You can do it).
 3.Expectation or Goals should be SMART.

LE01

The Journey Begins

It was raining for past few days, and it was same on 18th morning. I was in a hurry to finish the breakfast and head for the first lecture. After waiting for few minutes Dr. Prasad popularly known as Dr. Mandi came and sat on stage. He asked us to come closer, for a while the whole class was in confusion what he meant by that. I was astonished when he asked why we are sitting on chairs(phirangi way hai), this is not the way students were taught in Ancient India( desi tareka). We all went near the board and sat down just like in gurukuls.

Dr. Prasad opened his bag(was expecting some case study) and surprisingly toys came out. One was a stress ball with globe on surface with which one can study and play at same time.

Then came Newton's cradle

He tested our physics knowledge by asking few questions, some were answered. But he expected us to do better as we all have engineering background.He was trying to address the basic problem, that students have good marks in physics, but still not able to answer basic questions.Which is because we have theoretical knowledge apart from practical one.Later on he explained that these toys were made and used by production engineering students to earn while they were learning.

His main motto was to make us aware of the idea of earn while you learn.It's really thought provoking that we are spending so much in a B school in these 2 years without productivity.This can be changed when we learn to earn the expenses of our education.With the advancement of technology, now its easier. If we look around Napster, Google, Facebook all started in college.The funda is to do Dhanda (business).Everything comes down to one thing and that is money.

Then he told us about Mandi, event in which students go on the street sell toys and learn from this experience concepts of sales,marketing,economics etc.Video of 2010 Mandi:

The session was interactive and it made me realize that if I am spending some amount in a day then I should strive to earn the same.