The three monks:Technnology >> Participative Management >> Increased productivity

"Coming together is a beginning,
Keeping together is progress,
Working together is success"

 -Henry Ford

This session on Principles of organizational management focused on understanding the importance of applying technical skills and coordinating with team members to achieve increased productivity.

Students were asked to watch the animation “Three Monks” prior to the session and we were given opportunity to explain concepts related to management that could be observed in the animation.

 

 

 

 

Three Monks Animation: an brief narration

The animation begins with a young monk who goes to a monastery located on the top of a hill. The day to day requirement of water has to be satisfied from  only water source  at the bottom of the hill. To collect water one needs to get it from the bottom of the hill in buckets with a stick.

 

1 Monk

Working alone, one monk descends the mountain and fetches two cans of water at a time everyday to fill up the water. Initially enthusiastic he starts falling asleep in prayer due to fatigue.  

2 Monks

Soon a second monks joins him. They both decide to share the work after a initial fight. While bringing water, each wants to transfer the burden to other monk which leads to disagreement

To avoid unequal sharing of load, the first monk takes out a scale and measures the distance from one end of the pole to center while the other monk marks the distance . The two monks then carry the water with equal effort being applied by the two working as a team.

Here the concept of participative management was applied wherein each monk contributed to find out the correct measurement for equal load sharing.

 

 

 

 

3 Monks

When the third monk joined , the two monks think of transferring the effort to the new monk. But the third monk, being thirsty and tired, drinks the entire can of water that he bought. This leads to further disagreement.

The scenario changed when fire broke out in the monastery. The three monks started working together to save the monastery and succeeded. Disaster occurred and they worked together, but management is not only about tackling disasters.

Management should have a foresight and even under normal working conditions a manager should ensure that the entire team works in coordination to complete the tasks assigned

 

 

                               Car assembly Line..Less skill..combined effort..High Productivity

Working together.. applying technical mindset

The three monks now started using a pulley to fetch the water. Each person had to do a particular task. The tasks were equally important to fetch the water. Least amount of skill and effort was required. Productivity increased exponentially and the task assigned to each individual was simple and easy.

 

 

APPROACHà	INDIVIDUAL	PARTICIPATIVE	TEAM WORK
Variable	1 PERSON	2 PERSONS	3 PERSONS
How	I pole	1 pole 1 scale	Pole scale pulley
EFFORT	100 KJ	10 KJ	.0001 KJ
OUTPUT	2 BUCKETTS	1 BUCKETT	1 BUCKETT
EFFICIENCY ( E )	2/100 = .02	1/10 = .1	1/.0001 = 10000
PRODUCTIVITY	LOW	MODERATE	VERY HIGH

To me , the importance of handling technical issues in order to achieve increased productivity was the focal point of the lecture and I hope to look at each business case keeping in mind the concept of participative management explained in this lecture.