HBR On Leadership The Risks of Putting People on Too Many Project Teams
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Aug 27, 2025 Mark Mortenzen, an organizational behavior professor at INSEAD and co-author of 'The Overcommitted Organization,' dives into the world of multiteaming. He explores how employees juggling multiple projects can benefit organizations, yet face significant stress. Key discussions include challenges in assessing team workloads, the risk of burnout, and the essential need for transparency in team dynamics. Mortenzen emphasizes the importance of balancing flexibility with structured teamwork to maximize collaboration and minimize inefficiencies.
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Staffing Happens In Silos
- Staffing is often handled as a series of one-on-one requests rather than a coordinated system. This creates situations where people end up assigned more than 100% without anyone seeing the full picture.
Multiteaming Drives Cost And Learning
- Multiteaming saves costs and accelerates organizational learning by moving people across projects. It creates information pathways that help different parts of the company know what's happening.
Shared People Create Hidden Project Links
- Sharing people across projects creates human capital interdependence that links otherwise unrelated projects. A problem in one project can cascade because shared people get pulled to resolve it.