When two peeople need to agree, it takes one handshake. When three people need to agree, it takes three handshakes. Four people? Six handshakes. Five people? Twenty-four handshakes!

You can see how the chance of a disagreement rises quickly the larger the team.

Here's the kicker. Most disagreements are unaired and tacit, leading to a dangerously false sense of agreement. Then things just don't get done as quickly and this friction eventually leads to a team implosion.

* I learned this from Janice Fraser at LUXR, so call it Fraser's Law Of Team Agreement: A = (P-1)! where: A = the number of agreements required, and P =the number of people.

The solution? Break the team into groups of 3, choose facilitation techniques that detach egos from ideas, and then select from the best of each group as a team.