Why It's Hard to Share People Across Multiple Teams, and What to Do About It

By assigning people to multiple teams at once, organizations can make more-efficient
use of time and brainpower and do a better job of solving complex problems and sharing
knowledge across groups. But competing priorities and other conflicts can make it hard
for teams with overlapping membership to stay on track. Group cohesion often suffers,
and people serving on several teams concurrently may experience burnout.
Through extensive research and consulting, the authors have identified several ways that both team
and organizational leaders can reduce the costs of multiteaming and better capitalize on its advantages.
Team leaders should launch the team well to establish trust and familiarity, map every member’s skills,
carefully manage time across teams, and boost motivation by emphasizing opportunities to learn.
Organizational leaders should focus on mapping and analyzing patterns of team overlap,
promoting knowledge flows among teams, and buffering teams against shocks.

All this represents a significant investment of time and effort. But organizations pay a
much higher price when they neglect the costs of multiteaming in hot pursuit of its benefits.
Heidi K. Gardner is a former McKinsey consultant and Harvard Business School
professor now lecturing at Harvard Law School.
She has spent over a decade conducting in-depth studies of numerous
global professional service firms.