There were too many monks and too little porridge. During mealtime, the monks scrambled about, and the meager portions of porridge were pushed around chaotically, leaving everyone hungry.
Someone suggested that an elder should be responsible for distributing the porridge. However, to secure more for themselves, some monks began to flatter the distributor; furthermore, due to varying degrees of personal relationships, the amount of porridge distributed was highly uneven.
Hungry monks then proposed a rotation system. While it sounded like a good idea, the result was that the person whose turn it was would eat until they were overstuffed, while everyone else would starve.
When the Abbot returned from his travels, he decided to grant one monk the full authority to distribute the porridge, ensuring a standard process, but with one crucial rule: the distributor must eat last. From then on, the monks were finally able to eat their warm porridge equally.
This story teaches us at least three important lessons:
① Everything must be regulated by systems and mechanisms;
② Systems must constantly innovate and evolve with the times;
③ A good mechanism is not necessarily complex, and a complex mechanism is not necessarily good.