{"id":21109,"date":"2015-05-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\/"},"modified":"2020-05-11T13:59:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T13:59:43","slug":"the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\/","title":{"rendered":"The Maths of Multiple Team Membership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-10063\" src=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Life-in-a-matrix-3-Too-much-cooperation-going-on-3-330x232.jpg\" alt=\"cartoon,cooperation\" width=\"330\" height=\"232\" \/>Multiple team membership is becoming more and more common. Our own remote and virtual team survey of over 4,000 people tells us that, on average, managerial and professional people are now part of five virtual teams. If these really are interdependent \u201cteams\u201d then this implies a very high level of interconnection. For an average team size of around eight, there are 28 possible interconnections that need to be managed (assuming everyone is connected to everyone else). The formula is ((n x (n-1))\/2. If all five of our teams are that connected then we need to manage 140 interconnections.<\/p>\n<p>If we had to put time into managing these interconnections every week we would have an average of about 16 minutes to spend on each one, assuming we did no other work at all. If we are unable to put that amount of effort into sustaining a relationship and connection, then it\u2019s unlikely that we are really working with that individual as a member of a true team.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, most work isn\u2019t really teamwork; a lot of the work of virtual teams is actually conducted by groups rather than teams and is delivered asynchronously. A group is a hub and spoke organization operating largely through one-to-one contacts and doesn\u2019t require a lot of synchronous cooperation and interconnected collaboration. A group of eight people, to be managed, requires only seven connections, one person in the center with a single connection to each of the others. The person in the center is still very connected, but life is much more simple for the group members.<\/p>\n<p>The number of interconnections in a true, what we call \u201cspaghetti team\u201d, grows very fast. This is probably why post research shows the ideal size for a truly interconnected team to be about 4 to 6 people. If you create a graph of the number of interconnections, once you go beyond this level, the number starts to climb steeply. This effect is compounded when we are working together through technology, if you have 12 people on a conference call you can\u2019t really have an interactive discussion, it tends to become a series of monologues.<\/p>\n<p>So sometimes the constraints to ways of working and collaboration structures are nothing more than simple maths!<\/p>\n<p>[banner heading=&#8221;Contact Us&#8221; link=&#8221;https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/contact-us\/&#8221; icon=&#8221;man_with_laptop&#8221; anchor=&#8221;Find Out More&#8221; align=&#8221;left&#8221;]We help organizations cut through today&#8217;s complexities of virtual, matrix and global working.[\/banner][banner heading=&#8221;Virtual Teams&#8221; link=&#8221;https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/virtual-team-working\/&#8221; icon=&#8221;virtual_teams&#8221; anchor=&#8221;Find Out More&#8221; align=&#8221;right&#8221;]Learn more about our virtual team offerings to help your virtual teams operate even more efficiently.[\/banner]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Multiple team membership is becoming more and more common. Our own remote and virtual team survey of over 4,000 people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","type-blog","training-virtual-teams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Maths of Multiple Team Membership - Global Integration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Multiple team membership is becoming more and more common. Our own remote and virtual team survey of over 4,000 people tells us that, on average,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Maths of Multiple Team Membership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Multiple team membership is becoming more and more common. Our own remote and virtual team survey of over 4,000 people tells us that, on average,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-11T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-11T13:59:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Life-in-a-matrix-3-Too-much-cooperation-going-on-3-330x232.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevan Hall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevan Hall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevan Hall\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3ad6577af9c33612e410fbcdc3ff2a9a\"},\"headline\":\"The Maths of Multiple Team Membership\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-11T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-11T13:59:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":446,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/Life-in-a-matrix-3-Too-much-cooperation-going-on-3-330x232.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Maths of Multiple Team Membership - Global Integration\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/the-maths-of-multiple-team-membership\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/Life-in-a-matrix-3-Too-much-cooperation-going-on-3-330x232.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-11T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-11T13:59:43+00:00\",\"description\":\"Multiple team membership is becoming more and more common. 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