In this episode of the How to Lead – 2025 Edition series, Julia speaks with Autumn Phillips, a travel writer, adventurer, and change leader, who spent two decades as a newspaper editor leading award-winning newsrooms across the United States.

Autumn shares how to run a strategy meeting that doesn’t feel like a slow march through an agenda. Drawing from her experience leading both high-pressure editorial rooms and creative retreats around the world, she explains how to create conditions where people feel safe enough to speak up and bold enough to think differently.

From setting the right physical environment to lowering the stakes so risk-taking feels possible, Autumn offers practical steps to help teams listen better, push ideas further, and leave the room with a shared sense of momentum.

Listen to this episode to learn how a well-led strategy meeting can do more than setting a plan. It can unlock creativity, trust, and collective energy.

About the Guest:

Autumn Phillips is a travel writer, adventurer and change leader.

She retired in 2024 from a 20-year career as a newspaper editor, leading newsrooms across the United States.

Her leadership was recognized with many national awards, including two projects that were Pulitzer Prize finalists.

In 2023, she began taking readers on international trips, teaching them how to write about their journeys as a way to deepen the experience. She is starting the year by leading a women’s creativity retreat in Lamu, Kenya.

She was named NATJA Travel Journalist of the Year for stories on Lebanon, Sudan and Finland.

She writes a weekly newsletter and has published long-form narrative pieces on Kyrgyzstan, Ireland, Finland, Pakistan, Sudan, Zambia, Lebanon, Cuba, Morocco, the Grand Canyon, the World Nomad Games in Kazakhstan, and the Galapagos.