Travelling always gives me a fresh perspective on how different cultures approach everyday life—and risk.

In Vietnam, I’ve found myself viewing everything through a health and safety lens old habits die hard\!. Watching Hanoi’s Train Street was striking—cafés, homes and visitors all pause as the train passes, then life resumes almost instantly. I have not forgotten how to walk safely on the sleepers taught by Neil Pepper MBE FRGS from many years ago at LUL!

Crossing the roads is just as memorable. Thousands of motorbikes flow in every direction, yet there’s an unspoken rhythm between riders and pedestrians. It feels chaotic at first, but you quickly learn the key is to be predictable, stay aware, and trust that everyone is constantly reading the situation.

It’s made me reflect on something we often discuss in health and safety: culture.

Safety culture isn’t just about rules or compliance—it’s about behaviours, habits and shared expectations that shape everyday decisions.

As visitors, we adapt quickly to local norms rather than expecting them to change for us. In the workplace, we often ask people to change behaviours, but real improvement only happens when we understand the culture those behaviours sit within.

Whether on a construction site or a busy street in Hanoi, people are constantly assessing risk, adapting, and responding to what’s happening around them.

This trip has been a great reminder that improving health and safety performance is as much about culture as it is compliance.

Sometimes the most valuable lessons come when you step away from work.

What’s a place you’ve visited where the way people live or work genuinely shifted your perspective on risk, leadership, or safety culture—and what specifically did it change in how you think or act today?