Productivity Lessons by Buddhist Monks

Productivity

What is productivity?

Productivity is the measure of efficiency of Production. In simple terms, amount of output per unit of input.

Why is productivity important?

Productivity is the scale on which one can compare two different methods of production.

Productivity Lesson

Although one doesn't expect productivity lessons to come from Buddhists monks, but an animated video shown to us in our class will show you the opposite. Since the video is copyright protected I will not be able to provide you the video and will try narrating the important part of the videos.

There is a monastery located on the top of a hill and the only water source (river/lake) is at the bottom. To collect water one needs to get it from the bottom of the hill in buckets. Initially there were 2 monks, who after lot of fighting with each other, decided to carry the bucket together using a rod/log, and share the load equally. When they collected enough water, they were joined by the third monk (a fat one), who was tired from all the climbing and finished all the water in the monastery. Later that night, there was a fire in the monastery. Now in the desperate attempt to save the monastery the monks forgot their differences and started working together. They divided the path from the monastery to the water source into 3 parts. First monk filled the buckets from the source and gave them to the second monk, who in turn ran the middle section and gave the buckets to the third monk. The third monk took the bucket to the monastery and poured the water on the fire. With lot of effort they were able to extinguish the fire and save the monastery. This fire made them realize the need for a proper way of collecting water. So the next morning they came up with a simple solution. They installed a pulley on the cliff, through which one monk can lower a hook to the river.  Another monk can hang the bucket filled with water to the hook, which can be pulled up using the pulley. The third monk can carry the bucket from pulley to the monastery.

Now as you can notice there are 3 methods of collecting water shown. 

First-When they carry the water all the way from the river to the monastery.

Second-When they divide the path into 3 parts and pass the bucket of water.

Third-When they use a pulley to lift the bucket of water.

Now lets see how the parameters differ in each method.

PARAMETERS	First Method	Second Method	Third Method
No. of Monks required	1 or 2	3	3
Interdependency	Totally independent	Slightly dependent	Highly Dependent
Craftsmanship	High	Low	Least
Communication	Negligible	Slow	Fast
Work Satisfaction	High	Low	Least
Productivity	Very low	Moderate	High

As it is clear from the narration, that the minimum number of monks required increases from method 1 to 2 to 3, and the dependency also increases in the same manner. In the first method one single monk can carry the water up. In second method, if one of the monks is not there the other two can divide the path into 2 sections and carry the water. In third method, even when one monk is not there the whole process will fail.

Craftsmanship and work satisfaction is high for first method. A monk could improve the way he carries the water and can take pride in saying that because of him people of monastery are getting water. In second method the person is sharing the work with others, he will not be able take pride in the work and will lose any rights to change the method on his own. In the third method, the use of a tool (pulley) makes the work monotonous for the monks. They are just standing at one place and doing the same work over and over again. This greatly reduces the work statistician of the monks.

Assume a situation, a monk carrying the water faints or his bucket broke on the way up. Now in first method, as only one person is working no one will come to know about the incident till it's too late. In the second method, the other monks will come to know when they will notice him missing. This might take some time. In the third method the communication will be immediate. As soon as something happen other monks will come to know.

But the most important thing in a industry is the productivity, and the highest productivity is achieved in the third method. The gthird method represents a assembly line of a industry. It works on the principles of industrial engineering. Divide the work, make one person do all the work and provide him with the tools so that he can complete the work faster. But such things kill creativity.

Let's take an example of a guitar manufacturer.

A person specialised in making guitars will take some 20 days to make a single guitar, using simple tools. But he can customise it, make a cheap one or a masterpiece depending on the demand. And if some famous musician uses his guitar, he can be proud of himself and can boast about it. His work will be satisfactory and creative but productivity will be low.

On the other hand, a industry employing 100 people making 100 guitars a day will be having a productivity 20 times that of specialist. But job satisfaction of the workers in general will be low, as they will be doing the same work over and over again. A slow or a poor worker can hamper the production line. And none of the workers will be proficient enough to make a guitar on their own

From the above example and the monks' story we can see how the high productivity is achieved by industries.