The Monk Story

This blog post is about an animated Chinese feature film which is based on the popular Chinese proverb, "One monk will fetch two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third one and no one will want to fetch the water." This story gives the all important message that 'Unity is Strength' but there is more to it if you apply the concepts of organizational management as we discovered in our class.

Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_V4PnqIkUc

The Setting & The Plot
The story starts with a young monk who lives in a monastery atop a hill. He draws two buckets of water from the lake at the foot of the hill every day and takes it to the top of the hill on his shoulders. Then a tall monk comes along and the young monk tries to pass on the work of bringing water up the hill to the tall monk. But the tall monk insists that they should fetch the water together. They start fetching the water together carrying one bucket at a time on the stick but they enter a dispute that each of them was trying to transfer more load on to the other one.

Then we were asked to give our suggestions on the optimal and acceptable solution for the problem. There were a large number of options put in front of the class eg.
1) Going back to the original state where one person fetches two buckets each
2) Both go with different sticks and buckets
3) Divide the work with one person carrying the buckets for one half and the other person carrying the other half
4) Make a cart and pull the buckets up
5) Taking the bucket by supporting it at the center and fetching it together

We learnt that the last of the options was the best one. I will explain this in the following table.

Output = Buckets of water
Input = Energy put in (in Joules)

	Earlier Method	Proposed Method
Output (Buckets of water)	2	1
Input (Total Energy Consumed)	100	40
Effort required per bucket	50	40

Learnings

The table suggests that in the proposed method the amount of effort required per bucket is lesser. Also by doing the work together they can have better kinship. Moreover in the first method, when only one monk is carrying the two buckets, he will get exhausted very quickly and may become discontented with his job.

The two monks mark the center of the stick. While one monk holds the scale and measures the other monk marks. This is better known as Participative Management. If the same person measures and marks, he might be inclined to some mischief.

Similar is the case of a person working in an organization, if he is burdened too much or is given a task beyond his capacity, he will be discontented. By making teams, we reduce the work burden as well as improve the state of working of the individual. An individual who has to do all the work alone would face Protestant Work Ethic. It implies that you did something wrong in your past life and hence you have to bear this treatment.

The Story Continues......

The two monks start fetching the water together when one day a third fat monk comes to the monastery. He drinks up all the water and is hence sent alone to fetch the water. But on returning back he again drinks up the water but refuses to refill the container. So none of the monks fetch the water despite the extreme thirst they face. 

That night a rat comes in the monastery and knocks the candle holder on the curtains, leading to a devastating fire. All the three monks pool in their efforts by dividing the territory they cover and are able to douse the fire. They all then plan and come out with the best solution to the problem wherein one monk fills the bucket at the lake and ties it to a rope. The other monk pulls the rope through a pulley and the third monk takes the bucket to the monastery and fill the container. They don't have any further issues with the work.

The Salient Points

We must maintain that the division of work is equal among the team members. As can be seen from the final solution offered that if there is no equality of work the team members will not be motivated to work. The responsibility should be divided and there must be high inter dependence between the team members as it leads to more effectiveness.

It should be understood that all the three monks are different physically but their attitude is same towards humanity and positivity. They are all good people. Similarly in organisations, all the team members are not the same but they are all good and want to strive together for a common goal.

There should be high information flow and instant communication as can be seen in the method 3. Any communication to be passed on can be passed on without delays. This will reduce the idle time of the members and result in improved productivity.

There should be a change in method of working with growth in organisation and changing times. If the methods do not change, they will become obsolete.

Here, I would like to present a concise picture of the improvements in work style and other parameters while shifting from one method to another.

Various parameters	Method 1	Method 2	Method 3
Communication	None	Delayed	Instant
Task Role	Independent	Partially Dependent	Totally interdependent
Work Changes		Mid Point identification & Reduction in work tools	Innovative Work Practice eg. Modern Assembly line
Worklife	Hard	Easier	Fun
Philosophy of Worklife	Work for Death (Protestant Work Ethic)	Work to live	Work-fun-Moksha
Human Nature	Theory X	Theory Y	Theory Z

Building Organizations

The INCEPTION

Every tower has an underlying foundation which supports the building and if the foundation is not strong, no matter what material and technology you use, it will not stand. Similarly, every success story begins with an idea. The idea has to be impressive and innovative to make the foundation strong. This is the elemental step for any organisation to rise and prosper. The idea not only strengthens your base but also gives the direction and target to the organization.

Tower Building Exercise

Each and every drop of water is essential in constituting a river and every river is essential to making the sea. Same is the case with organisations, where each and every block has its definite purpose in the scheme of things. The organisation grows with the addition of each block and coverage of a new milestone, but every additional block to be placed is different with respect to others. 

In our Principles of Management Class, we underwent an exercise to build towers using light wooden blocks. The wooden blocks were to be stacked one over the other in order to construct a stable tower. It was a simple exercise, but it incorporated many of the principles of the course, for instance, what are the fundamental principles behind a successful enterprise, how can a mammoth organisation thrive successfully, etc.  Even with such a simple exercise, one can understand the details of an organisation, such as how to develop hierarchies and structure an organisation.

The first principle, as mentioned earlier, is to have a have a strong footing and have deep roots in your areas of specialization. Also you need to have a good idea to be stable in the market and stick for long term. The base block comprises of the core values and if they are not sound (i.e. the base block is not heavy and strong enough), it may not be able to withstand the pressures and may buckle. Every additional step has to be properly planned and checked for necessity since it imposes extra friction between the existing layers and additional pressures on the lower layers. Hence, the additional block must be light in weight, or in other words, the person must be free from ego. This would reduce the friction and lead to amicable working. Also every step should have an involvement and consensus of every member of the team in order to have better bonding and fetch desirable solutions.

The Tower

GOAL Setting / Deciding the Target

Goal Setting is one of the most important functions of an organisation and, perhaps, any team. Without deciding the goal we can not know the direction to put our efforts and the efforts would be wasted. Similarly, even setting a goal which is below the expectations or which is beyond the requirements is not desirable as these would not bring out the true capacity of the team/organisation and hence would lead to a downfall. To take care of this, we have SMARTER Goal Setting, which implies-

• S - Specific
• M - Measurable
• A - Achievable
• R - Realistic
• T - Time Bound
• E - Evaluate
• R - Re-evaluate

Now let us study the following data and we will understand the importance of the SMARTER goals withe reference to it.

Parameter	Index	I	II	III	IV
Historical Tower height achieved by team LOW	1	5	5	5	5
Historical Tower height achieved by team HIGH	2	18	20	21	23
Achievable Performance -(Estimate / Guess )	3	18	20	22	25
Goal proposed by the Manager	4	18	22	22	18
Goal proposed by the worker	5	12	12	12	20
Goal mutually agreed for building the tower between worker and manager	6	15	22	18	15
No. of cubes Tower manager and worker team could build / achieve at the end of the exercise	7	18	18	18	18

Now as we can see from the data, we have the historical highs and lows for the Tower height achieved by teams earlier. On the basis of these data, an estimate is made for the achievable performance. The manager and the worker both assess the estimate for achievable performance and set their respective goals (4 & 5). Based on these, the worker and manager negotiate with one another and reach a mutually agreeable goal for the task at hand. While negotiating, the manager should try to reach as close to achievable performance as he can. This would help increase the productivity and improve the overall performance of the team.

The performance of the teams under various scenarios can be compared by the use of certain parameters mentioned in the table below:

Gaps	I	II	III	IV
Gap between Tower height Performance so far achieved and Achievable performance of tower	0	2	4	7
Gap between goal proposed by the manager and mutually agreed goal by team	3	0	4	3
Gap between goal proposed by the manager and the goal proposed  by the worker	6	10	10	-2
Gap between goal proposed by the worker and mutually agreed by team	-3	-10	-6	5
Gap between  performance achieved (at the end of the exercise ) and  goal mutually agreed by team	-3	4	0	-3
Gap between  performance achieved ( at the end of the exercise ) and  achievable goal	0	-2	-4	-7

Scenario 1 is a case in which the manager is not an initiator. He takes the goal as the achievable performance, and does not strive for a better result, which is evident even from the goal proposed by the team where the manager and the worker both cede equal ground. It also shows that the manager is not influential and is not very thoughtful. Thus even though the team outperforms its set goal, it is able to reach only the achievable level.

Scenario 2 is a case where the manager is very optimistic and is ready to take an initiative. Also since the goal proposed by manager and that agreed by team are the same, hence it can be seen that the manager is also very influential with the workers. But, overall the team cannot reach the goal they had mutually agreed and hence it can be said that the team is not very efficient.

Scenario 3 portrays a case wherein the estimated guess is more than the maximum height achieved historically. The manager proposes a goal equal to the achievable performance which implies that manager is optimist and takes initiative for work. He is moderately influential over the workers and negotiates well for the goal. The motivation provided by the manager helps the team in performing according to the goal set and achieving the target but it falls well short of the maximum tower height achieved and raises a question about the approach of the team.

The Scenario 4 has the estimated achievable performance higher than the maximum tower height achieved. The goal proposed by the manager is even lesser than that by workers which shows that the manager is lethargic and that workers are thoughtful about their work. The mutually agreed goal goes down further as a consequence of the lethargy of manager. But the team performs better than the expectations and stacks more cubes than the goal set by team.

Thus a few of the learning worth noting in the above example are that the manager must be an initiator and take the initiative with any task at hand. He must have a good influence over his team, so that he can motivate and convince them towards the common goal.

Valley Crossing and Teamwork

This blog will discuss about the importance of Teamwork in the organization. Teamwork is defined in the dictionary as "work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole." But there is no universally accepted definition of teamwork.

The photo depicts the true value of teamwork for the task at hand. In order to cross the gap of more than a step, their must be a team of three. If there are any less number of members, the gap can not be crossed as the beam would not remain balanced and if there are any more number of members for the same gap, it would be an extra over the required resources. Similarly, in a team in an organization, if the number of people are less than the required, the burden on each member would be more than he can bear and the team would not succeed.

In the photo, it is also evident that even if one of the member of the team is weak and is not able to support his share of the load, then the task which is to cross the gap will not be completed. Analogous to this, if in a team any of the link is weak and is not able to deliver his responsibilities, the team will not be able to complete the task.

The best example of teamwork can be taken from the world of ants.

The ants as can be seen in the figure are very arduous workers and always work in teams to accomplish any task for the community.

While assembling a team, factors such as adaptability of individual members must be kept in mind. This will not only encourage the team members but also develop High performance team. The various steps involved in assembling a high performance team are mentioned in the following figure.

Thus, with a paradigm shift from hierarchy model to team model, it is important to determine goals mutually and build work processes around teams. This will enhance the productivity while maintaining a clarity of thought towards the organizational goal.

Khan Academy

The Khanacademy.org, a non profit educational organisation, was created in 2006 by Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business school. It started with Khan remotely tutoring one of his cousins in mathematics and science, interactively using Yahoo Doodle Images. He later shifted to You tube video tutorials which currently has over 150 million total views, with a subscriber base of 320,000. It has a free online video data base of 3200 videos.

The academy in itself is an example of creative problem solving. A problem once identified can be solved creatively by optimizing the resources available, as in the case of Salman Khan. A creative solution to the problem can also help in minimizing the cost incurred and may have other varied applications.

The success of this interactive, conversational tutorials suggests a new innovative way of learning, without any boundaries. For any system or organisation to perform well, it must change and evolve with time. For instance, when Kodak invented the camera, it became very successful, but it did not keep up with the changing world and reached on the verge of bankruptcy. Similarly, the classroom medium of learning has been prevalent for years and has not changed with technological advancements and it is imperative that such developments be also incorporated into the system. It also raises a question on the relevance of physically attending classes against the use of video lectures and suggests a paradigm shift in the methods of teaching.



http://www.khanacademy.org/talks-and-interviews/v/khan-academy-vision-and-social-return


With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere," the academy defines the concept of globalization, wherein the world is a 'border-less' space with all the customers 'equidistant' from the organization. The individuals can learn about the various topics of mathematics, science or any other field from even the most remote location of the world, where education is still to reach. The offline versions of these videos have already been distributed by not-for-profit organisations in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Such tutorials can add another chapter to the future of education in under-developed countries and help in reaping the benefits of globalization in the true sense.


These types of innovative organizations can help in optimizing the available resources to obtain the best possible output and in envisaging the technologies to have a better tomorrow.