Wednesday 25 July 2012

Three Monks (Chinese animated movie)

Three Monks is a Chinese animated feature film  produced by the Shanghai Animation Film StudioIt is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests. When the movie starts a note appears in which first column states "one monk fetches water to drink", the second column reads "two monks carry water to drink" and the third one just states, "three monks". To get a better understanding first let us watch the movie.


The movie can be divided into 3 parts:

1. When only one monk is there - We can see that when the monk was alone he used to do the work i.e. bringing the water from the river to the monastery happily. He had no qualms with the way things were moving. In other words he was content with the life he was living or the work he was doing.



2. When another monk joins the first one - The attitude of the first monk changes drastically when the second monk joins him in the monastery. Initially he intimidated him into bringing water from the river but after some time the newbie monk demand equal distribution of work. This altercation resulted in loss of man hours as well as gloomy atmosphere in the monastery. After lot of deliberation, they decide to share the responsibility and once they started sharing the job, their productivity also increased. We can see that the method adopted in this case is much better then used in the previous one. 
3. When the third monk joins the other two - Initially the same thing happened wherein the veterans forced the newcomer into work. After sometime it was total chaos in the monastery with none of the monks willing to go to the river to get the water. One fine day when fire breaks in the monastery then all the three monks work together in tandem thereby giving fruitful results. The method in this case is superior to the methods used in case 1 and case 2 as it involves active participation of all the resources.

Learning

The movie teaches us a lot of managerial lessons. I have listed down few of them:

1. Team work - The work which could have been done very easily had they worked as team took a toll on them. As we have seen in case of emergency (monastery catching fire), they worked as a team and got the desired results very easily. The manager has to ensure that the employees are working in a team, individuality hinders the progress of a firm. Team work can do wonders. In my last blog also I had shared a video on team work, this time have a look at this video:

2. Job distribution - The situation can be compared to an organisation which has all the resources in the world but is not able to utilise them properly. In the movie even with three monks (resources), water (end result)  was scarce in the monastery. It is responsibility of the manager to utilise the resources provided to him optimally. As we can see in the end the monks divides the job and get the desired result very effectively and easily. 


3. Innovation - There are two ways of completing a job, one is monotonous conventional method which every body follows and the other one being innovative method. In the movie the monks could have very well adopted conventional approach (three monks standing at regular intervals) to get the water, but it would have been very tiresome as well as time consuming. Thus they went for innovative idea of placing a pulley thereby reducing the mechanical effort one has to put in which in turn increased their productivity. In a company the manager has to be a Theory Y manager, always pushing the employees for new ideas, always having faith in the man power assigned to him. If the manager backs the employee then only employee can come out with a new and innovative idea. Innovation can be continuous (over a period of time), can be drastic (out of the exigency). The one which we had seen in the movie is drastic. But we should always aim for continuous innovation. If the innovation is continuous then it will be flawless because sufficient amount of time and thought process would have invested in that idea, whereas drastic innovations arises out of the emergency situation. 
What you have to say about this?

4. Crisis management - In the movie when the temple catches fire all the three monks work together as a team and gets out of the crisis situation. There are times when people looses their cool during emergencies. A manager must always keep a clam composure no matter what the situation is. In case of emergency, the manager should adopt a rationale thinking in getting the team of the emergency situation. He should be in a position to assign different employees in different roles so as to counter the exigencies.



An organisation can flourish only if it has cordial atmosphere as well as convivial employees. If the manager is able to bind the team together jovially, there is no stopping to the company. In the movie the same set of people were fighting against each other but circumstances changed them and the same set of people started working together and with increased productivity. The manager in a company must ensure that the employees are not dependent on emergency situation to come together and work as a team, they should work in coordination from the moment they join the team.


Wednesday 11 July 2012

Valley crossing



The Case - Valley Crossing


Situation
The situation is that persons have to cross the valley. As the picture suggest there is a ditch in between the two mountains. It can be easily deciphered that single person alone cannot cross the valley. In simple terms the task (of crossing the valley) cannot be completed without involving a group of three (min.) persons. The current situation is tantamount to the case in a company wherein the employee has to work in a team to finish  a specific task. Even though the employee may be efficient but when you are working in a team its the team effort, coordination, commitment that counts rather than individual personality traits. Here, in this situation the employees have to complete the job of getting to the other end of valley safely.

Work Process
Work process can be defined as the steps involved in solving a particular problem. In this case the problem is to cross the valley. The steps required to complete the job are :-

1. Analyzing the situation - Before jumping on to a solution, the problem needs to be thoroughly analyzed. In this case the problem is such that the job cannot be completed individually. This is the ground reality and it is to kept in mind before starting the task.

Analyzing also includes imbibing same target goal in the minds of all the group members. Once all these preliminary activities are done we can move to next step.

2. Strategy to achieve goals - After the analyses of the problem, strategy is to be devised meticulously so as to achieve the target goal. While forming the strategy, strengths and weaknesses of all the team members is to be taken into account. The role assigned should be in such a way so that every group member is assigned a task in which he/she is good at.


The entire focus should be on achieving the target goal which is same for all i.e. to cross the valley. In this case strategy may consists of :
a. Motivation - Keep motivating the group members that the target is achievable.
b. Communication - There should be effective communication between the team members. There are instances when groups have failed miserably due to lack of proper communication.
c. Coordination - Every member has to walk in tandem so coordination carries utmost importance.
d. Trust - This is one of major trait that is required or instilled among the team members if the group has to complete the task. In this task when one of the member is over the ditch, trust will act as panacea to keep him maintaining calm composure which is very important at that particular stage.
e. Team spirit - team spirit plays a very important role in group tasks. In this case when the first person crosses the valley he should not become complacent and walk away from his duty only because now he is safe.  In fact he should carry out the with double energy and enthusiasm considering the fact that the job is almost over and slight effort from his end will complete the job.

3. Execution - Once strategy is made then its only about execution. It is pertinent to note that during execution every member should stick to the roles assigned to them. Also they should strictly adhere to the strategy made after deliberation or as a matter of fact group discussion.

If the steps provided in work process are followed then it is quite unlikely that the task may go unfinished.

Learning from the task
The task has taught me many lessons. I am listing down some of them :

a. Goal Setting - The entire exercise was a successful one because all the group members have clear cut idea of the target they wanted to achieve. Thus it is manager's responsibility to set the goals correct and communicate the same effectively to the team members.


b. Trust - It can be easily deduced that at any point of time one of the group member will be hanging over the valley. At that point of time if the member loses his cool and become panic stricken that it may lead to catastrophic results. It is trust, faith on the ability of team members that will help him maintain his cool and complete the job successfully.


I would like to share a video of one such trust exercise.




c. Team work - Valley crossing explicitly explains the concept of team work i.e. cooperation, coordination etc. The members have to match their steps, walk in tandem to achieve the desired result. If there had been slight deviation in the synchronization then it would have led to some hiccups.
Video for team work :


One more for inspirational video:



d. Time management - If it was for individual to cross the valley then it would have taken more time for three people to cross it. The management quickly grasped the situation and got the job done by delegating three employees thereby saving considerable time.


e. Job distribution - The job was distributed among three employees who were successful in completing the job which would not have been completed if it was attempted individually. The manager must keep in mind the employee's potential and distribute the job accordingly.
f. Risk taking ability - The valley crossing exercise stressed upon the risk taking abilities also. It explained that the employees took calculated risk of crossing the valley backed by various other traits including but not limited to motivation, determination etc. They would have very well deterred by the ditch in the valley but since risk was taken, they were able to succeed.



I would like to conclude the Valley Crossing exercise with a motivational video on Team Work.