
In general, the number of communication paths for n people is SUM(n-1),
where
SUM is the arithmetic sum function of 1, 2, –-, n. Thus a modest
increase from a 4-person team to a 12-person team would increase the poten-
tial number of communication paths from 6 to 66. A tripling of a small team
would increase the potential communication paths by more than ten times!
Associated with this increase in the sheer number of communication paths
is the chance of an error in communications. Consider, for example, that
the chance of communicating correctly a particular message between any
two people is 2/3. The probability that we will communicate properly from ...