The overcommitted organization: why it's hard to share people across multiple teams - and what to do about it

Multiteaming is on the rise as organizational models shift away from centralized hierarchies. Assigning employees to different work teams simultaneously improves problem solving and knowledge sharing, but can lower group cohesion and lead to burnout. These risks can be mitigated by identifying which groups are susceptible to shocks, providing more learning opportunities, building familiarity and trust via skills mapping and team launches, and increasing cross-team coordination. Team-leader priorities include managing time across the teams and boosting motivation; organizational-leader priorities include tracking human capital interdependence, fostering knowledge flows, and providing buffers against shocks.