People intuitively use the word network with a remarkable consistency that continues to surprise us. The idea evokes a clear, simple mental model, a structure of points or circles and connecting lines—nodes and links, vibrant with purposeful activity. Things get fuzzy when describing how a network or virtual team actually does anything coherent, how it moves in time.

To see something like a network
or virtual team, you need to look at it from several points of view
simultaneously. The people-purpose-links-time model provides four interrelated
dimensions for seeing a group. With this model, you can hold
something as distributed as a network and something as immediate as a
virtual team—people linking with purpose over time.

The principles are the basis for a simple, practical methodology that has been honed over two decades. The network principles also interrelate as a systems model, offering a dynamic framework for both understanding and practice.