As the number of participants increases, the channels of communication increase exponentially. As a result increase in the complexity decrease in the quality of communication (e.g., more misunderstanding).
To increase the number of participants, various aspects of communication need to be managed, such as the needs and desires of the various stakeholders, the form, nature, frequency, content, format, choice of technology, etc. of communication.
The forumla to calculate the number of communication channels (n = number of participants) is:
Number of communication channels = n * (n – 1) / 2
For example, for a team of 5 and a team of 12, the number of communication channels is 10 and 66, respectively.
