Team members start work at different times each day, resulting in short overlaps and reduced team interaction and effectiveness. What should the project manager do?

The best approach is to ask the team to define a team charter and agree on core working hours. This empowers the team to collaboratively establish their own operating guidelines and expectations, fostering commitment and buy-in. A team charter often includes agreements on communication, decision-making, and working hours, directly addressing the issue of reduced interaction. Telling team members to start earlier is a top-down command that may be met with resistance and doesn't address the underlying issue of team autonomy. Assigning overlapping work periods without team input is similar; it's prescriptive and can lead to resentment rather than improved collaboration. Requiring the entire team to start at the same time is also a directive that might not be feasible or desirable for all team members and bypasses the opportunity for team self-organization.