Best Animated Movie !!!

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much

~~Helen Keller

This story teaches a gentle, humorous lesson about responsibility. It's a story about 3 monks who allow personal pride to interfere with the performance of daily task, each believing that the other two should be the ones to go downhill to fetch water. 

Three Monks and no Water

The movies starts with a young is making a pilgrimage a journey which is so grueling that he decides to rest at a remote empty temple he has discovered on the side of a mountain. 

He is soon joined by another monk, who is making the same journey. At first they are glad of each other’s company. But soon they begin to argue over how the daily chores should be divided. When a third monk arrives, the squabbling only becomes worse. 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 candle holder, leading to a devastating fire in the temple. Each monk can see only the merit of his own argument, and all three are stubborn to the point of self-destruction. 

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.

Analysis of the Movie :


Lets start with analysing the methods of carrying water at three different stages of movie: 


Stage 1 : When only 1 monk lived
He was a happy soul carrying the two buckets on his shoulder with a stick daily, though the method meant alot of physical labor and fatigue to him. He could have went for the pulley arrangement initially itself, but since his needs were limited, he could easily satisfy them with 


Stage 2 : When second Monk moved in 
Initially both the monks fought over how they would carry the water. After a while, both of them tried to come up with something they saw as solution, but as none of the solution was a standard solution and was biased towards the person offering it, no consensus was reached. Finally, first monk came with scale and center of the bamboo was located. No further quarrels occurred but none of them seemed satisfied working together.


Stage 3 : When the third monk came
This was the point when all the dynamics changed. None of them agreed on bringing  water. Infact, 3rd monk once brought the water from the foothills but consumed it all by himself. This was a perfect example of a selfish employee who is least bothered about the well being of his colleagues.
At the time of fire, though all three came together to save the temple, there was lack of planning and leadership. All three ran for water together. 
Finally, they were able to extinguish the fire but it displayed few very important management principles; Planning- vision, Innovation (how at the time of crisis they came with drastic innovation and after that they came up with a pulley arrangement).

This story is a satire on how we mess up our things, simply by no planning. Had there been some planning and teamwork this problem wouldn't had occurred. Planning is important in any individual's life or, organisation for that matter. Very simply put, planning identifies where the organization wants to be at some point in the future and how it is going to get there. Skills in strategic planning are critical to the long-term success of your organization. 


This form of planning includes: 

a) Taking a wide look around at what's going on outside my life or the organization and how it might affect my life or the organization , (identifying opportunities and threats).
b) Taking a hard look at what's going in my life or inside the organization, including its strengths and weaknesses (perhaps doing a SWOT analysis)
c) Establishing statements of mission, vision and values (some prefer to do that as the first step in planning)
d) Establishing goals
e) Identifying how those goals will be reached (strategies, objectives, responsibilities and time lines)

Awards won by this Movie

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

Your views and comments are always welcomed :)

Haste Haste Kat Jayein Raste

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

~~Henry Ford 

Time for another management jargon and this time its “3 idiots crossing the valley” (as Prof Mandi calls it).

Time for another management jargon and this time its “3 idiots crossing the valley” (as Prof Mandi calls it).

Valley crossing exercise as illustrated, focuses on TEAMWORK and roles each one of us plays in a team.

Valley crossing is a simple 8 step process where 3 people cross over a valley with the support of a straight pole. And as a manager i have to come up with a plan to make it possible.

Everybody knows that teamwork is one of the major foundations to success. One can only reach so far on his/her own. The beauty of teamwork is that a goal can be reached faster, more efficiently, and the skill sets of each team member can be fully utilized. 

On the other hand, if you choose a team member that needs to be convinced of the desired goal, that already creates difficulty from the start. If the team member’s beliefs do not align with those of the goal, you may or may not have chosen the right team member. One must always remember that the key to achieving a goal collectively is to ensure that you have chosen the right team members.

Team ingredients

1.     Shared vision – What is natural is to have a blurry vision of where the organization is going. The vision is not communicated enough or shared throughout the organization.

What is unnatural yet necessary is to create an inspiring vision for the future that is clear and informs all throughout the organization what the future holds and their role in it. It is shared because it is understood and repeated in numerous ways.

Leaders usually do share the vision but usually not enough or in multiple methods.

Actions: Leaders have to be deliberate and have a plan on how to communicate the vision

• Leaders need to share the vision and tie it into the daily tasks every day in their conversations. 
• People need to be clear what needs to be done and why.
• Leaders need to include others for comments, clarifications or additions. This way they get others “fingerprints” are on it.
• Leaders need to remember involvement = commitment.

      2. Trust among members- What is natural is to rely on your self or your department and not expect much from others.

What is unnatural yet necessary, is to develop an interdependency on others characterized by high trust and risk taking.

Actions: Leaders develop trust by trusting their people.

• Leaders develop trust by being vulnerable and admitting their mistakes.
• Leaders make and keep small promises.
• Leaders set high expectations for their team and encourage risk taking and direct feedback.

Three Idiots Crossing the valley  - Detailed process by me :

Step 1: All safe                                     L1     L2     L3 _______                                        

                                                           R1     R2    R3

Step 2: Person 3 half safe                              L1     L2     L3                                           

                                                           R1    R2     R3

Step 3: Person 3 full unsafe                             L1     L2     L3     

                                                                     R1     R2     R3

Step 4: Person 2 and 3 partially safe                        L1     L2    L3

                                                                    R1     R2     R3

Step 5: Person 2 fully unsafe                                    L1     L2    L3  

                                                                             R1     R2    R3

Step 6: Person 1 and 2 partially safe                                 L1    L2    L3  

                                                                             R1     R2    R3

Step 7: Person 1 fully unsafe                                             L1    L2    L3  

                                                                                      R1    R2   R3

Step 8: Person 1 partially safe                                                   L1    L2    L3 

                                                                                       R1    R2    R3

Step 9: Everyone is safe                                                           L1    L2    L3 

                                                                                              R1    R2   R3

      3.  Established expectations and guidelines – What is natural is to assume that co-workers are on the same page and that they understand the desired results.

What is unnatural yet necessary is to be very deliberate in clarifying reciprocal expectations and establish guidelines fro how to work together effectively.

Actions: To be a team the individuals need to co-create expectations for themselves and feel their input was heard and valued.

• Leaders and the team need to decide on how they are going make decisions, i.e. majority, minority a “tell” or content expert, unanimous or consensus.
• Expectations need to be clarified, leader to the team, team to the leader and team of each other.
• Meeting and team guidelines are established that flow out of the expectations, such as “One conversation at a time,” “Stay focused”, and “Defer judgment.”

     4.  Communication skill and conflict resolution – What is natural is to avoid conflict, jump to rash conclusions and not communicate what you are thinking.

What is unnatural yet necessary is to make your thinking visible, fill in the “white space” for people, identify your assumptions and resolve conflicts.

Actions: The team needs to have specific tools to communicate, otherwise the strongest and most senior voice wins out.

• Part of the expectations should involve communication guidelines
• Most teams need some kind of skill training for communication, like how to listen better, inquiry versus advocacy, summarizing what was said, ladder of inference, left hand column.

Management and leadership action is then directed toward promoting cooperative action among team members. This is done by acting through one or more of five operational variables: positive interdependence,  individual accountability, promotive interaction, social skills, and group processing 

Thus, for the success of any organization Team work is of utmost importance along with a good manager who knows how to distribute the load so that no one feels overloaded.

My name is KHAN

I’m reminded of Carl Sagan’s quote:

“The simplest thought like the concept of the number one has an elaborate logical underpinning.”

I love the idea of putting learning online. I believe that there’s a big advantage to having access to a teacher’s think-aloud at any time of the day, anywhere in the world. That is an extremely powerful idea, and it wasn’t available or possible a few years ago. So- Salman Khan began making his videos for his cousins, putting them on YouTube, and we all started to take notice.

Salman Khan, once a hedge fund manager, reaches more than six million students across the world monthly by providing free educational videos via the Internet. 

The Mission

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created Khan Academy. He asks teachers to consider changing the traditional classroom by allowing students to watch video lectures at home and complete "homework" in the classroom. The idea of learning with the Internet finally began to take shape with Khan Academy.

Sal brought used his conceptual skills to shape up his vision and thereby reinventing education.    

Salman Khan : Man behind KhanAcademy

The Khan Academy is not teaching concepts and ideas. Khan Academy teaches answers. 1 + 1 = 2 . The concepts and the ideas are really what we want our students to understand, not the rote knowledge. We need a good teacher to facilitate the discussion of what the concept of numbers can be. I like the idea of data tracking on the back-end that allows teachers to see the progress of their students.

The method of instruction emphasizes procedures — how to do math — but ignores the conceptual understanding that’s central to authentic learning: what math means. At its core, this is a function of ineffective instruction, which to a large degree is related to ineffective content.

But one glaring hole has yet to be undertaken: context.  Khan Academy is a symptom of a teaching profession where too many teachers are too shy or too old-school to jump into the publishing world. We need that to happen faster. Context is key.  Ever wonder why so many of those math videos are boring? You’re missing the context by which they occur in.

Not everyone agrees. Critics might argue that Khan’s videos and software encourage uncreative, repetitive drilling—and leave kids staring at screens instead of interacting with real live teachers. Even Khan would acknowledge that he’s not an educational professional; he’s just a nerd who improvised a cool way to teach people things.

Although I believe that a computer program can never and should never replace an actual teacher, I feel that Khan Academy is a great empowering tool to enable students to work independently. I would recommend this program especially to students who need reviewing but are embarrassed to admit that they are confused in class. Such students would be able to watch the same video as many times as they need to without feeling rushed. Others who need more of a challenge would also benefit from it, as they have the freedom to move ahead, and choose topics that spark their interests.
Thus bringing theory X and theory Y into use. 

Lack of financial resources and inaccessibility to cutting edge technology make getting quality math and science education difficult for many students. In some rural locations, finding skilled instructors to teach subjects like basic arithmetic, advanced mathematics and science is nonexistent. Khan Academy's free educational services allow learners to benefit from quality instruction no matter where they are.

For excellent learning to take place takes passion on the part of the student. Screens encourage passivity; it's already been documented in laboratory studies. Small classes with good teachers teaching what they're knowledgeable about - that's the ideal learning environment.