• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

How I manage

Published: Thursday, 23 February 2023

For one of the projects I’ve been leading for over the past 2.5 years, I manage a team of 20 people remotely. I meet with all of my direct reports every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning. I batch all the meetings so they take place one after the other.

My team is located all over the world - mostly all over Australia, so we need to work remotely.

People need to show up to our meetings on time to discuss their work. And they can set their own hours to work outside of that. This allows us to work truly asynchronously. I meet frequently enough that I don’t need to be constantly messaging each of them throughout the day. It’s ok to mostly batch what I have to say until the next team meeting. Since remote work began in full force in 2020, I’ve been trying different ways to optimize the team’s performance. About a year ago, I decided this was the optimal solution for my morale, productivity and happiness.

The team love the flexibility of working whenever they want, while connecting closely with their team three times a week at their meetings.

This process works really well for steady-state work.

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • Singularity University Reunion

    Great to go back to San Francisco in August for our Singularity University’s Graduate Studies Program Reunion. So proud of my classmates, their...

  • Clarity in thought

    Clear away some space and time for yourself. Without the pressure of someone bursting in and occupying your space. By giving yourself the time and...

  • The people I admire and how I use them for inspiration

    Most lists of inspiring people contain the billionaires, or world-wide success stories of people who have decoyed 20-30-40 years of service towards...

  • YouthActionNet Global Fellowship Day 1: What makes a great leader

    The first day of the "YouthActionNet Fellowship" program began with a welcome email read out, written by Bill Clinton!  How exciting!  I've always had...

  • Fetch Robotics

    I visited Fetch Robotics as part of a field trip for a Stanford course I took. Fetch Robotics sold to Zebra Technologies for $290 million in 2021....

  • My lockdown life

    Lockdown is certainly a change of pace for me. I used to fly around the world twice a month! Now I’m stuck inside my 768 sq ft apartment for months...

  • How I won my battle against procrastination

    Just in the past 2.5 weeks, I've seen my productivity shoot through the roof, I have more energy and I feel great about myself (who wouldn't?)   No,...

  • The Sandbox Global Summit

    How to create a Sandbox Global Summit Carefully select over 4 years, a group of 650 under-30 year-olds from around the world and cultivate...

  • Sunday Funday

    Spent the entire Sunday working in the garage with Garth Bradbeer and Tom Cooper working on a robotic prototype.  We worked until 1am that night, and...

  • Remembering Bob Paterson

    I flew from Cairns FNQ to Melbourne (a 3.5-hour flight!) for university. I didn’t have enough money to go to university. But I had faith in myself,...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top