Home or away? What travel teaches us about building places that work for everyone
“You’re opening up to new experiences without knowing what’s going to happen next — you’re discovering as much about yourself as you are about the people you meet.”
I caught the travel bug early.
A train ride to the Alps when I was 18 months old, vomiting over a Swiss version of Cruella. Not exactly a glamorous origin story, but probably the most honest. I haven’t really stopped moving since.
Back then, I was chasing the unknown — odd hostels, dodgy jobs, unexpected friendships. But lately I’ve been thinking more about what that taught me. Not just about myself, but about how we live and work. And how we might shape systems that people actually feel part of.
This post is for anyone working in strategy, delivery, digital, participation, innovation or change. Anyone who’s trying to build something better — more adaptable, more human, more resilient. And maybe it starts with looking at our cities and services less like systems to fix and more like places to wander, connect and rediscover.
Places aren’t just built — they’re felt
When I lived in Barcelona, I learned that the city itself felt collaborative. Not just in the museums or murals, but in the way the guy in the tapas bar would flick over the vinyl between cocktails, or how the jelly-and-ice-cream café turned into a dance floor once the clock hit midnight.
It didn’t matter whether it was a bakery or a seafront club — people took pride in making that space feel like it belonged to others too. That they were helping shape what Barcelona was becoming.
What would our public services look like if we thought more like that?
From solo travel to shared purpose
I’ve slept rough in presidential gardens. Shared bunkbeds with strangers. Been hosted by women in the Swazi countryside who were growing their own vegetables to support each other and their families.
I’ve shared fire-side conversations, DJ’d in mafia-run jazz bars, joined canvassing teams in France and Sweden. And the thing that’s stayed with me the most?
Doing things with people — not for or to them — changes everything.
What travel can teach those of us working on strategy, systems and services
Travelling without a plan teaches you to let go. To trust your instincts. To stay open to surprise.
Those are exactly the muscles we need when designing systems around people’s lives.
1. Wander first. Plan second.
Sometimes the best ideas come when you stop trying to control the route. New Local call this community power — the idea that public services work best when they follow the energy of communities, not when they try to direct it.
→ Try this: walk the neighbourhood, talk to the people who aren’t in the room. Hold off on the plan until you’ve heard the stories.
2. Stay in the hostels (not just the hotels)
Staying close to the ground — where the snoring, awkward chats and emotional realness live — gives you better insight. Renaisi’s work on place-based evaluation shows how proximity leads to meaning.
→ Try this: bring in the views of volunteers, carers, reception staff. Don’t just survey them. Sit with them.
3. Don’t just build. Invite.
Barcelona’s superpower isn’t just infrastructure. It’s the sense that you’re welcome to join in. That’s what explores through human learning systems — relationships and trust as the foundation of good public services.
→ Try this: make your project or strategy feel like an invitation. Shift formal briefings into something more open, conversational, even joyful.
4. Ground global ideas in local soil
When I was in South Africa, I saw how activists, artists, farmers and healthcare workers built bridges between memory and action. It wasn’t always easy. But it was real.
→ Try this: use global tools like ’s Our Futures or Systemic Design Framework — but adapt them with your community, not in isolation.
How to start
If you’re thinking about how to put this into practice, here’s a simple 4-step process we’ve used that works:
🗣️ Start with stories
Interview people who are living the issues you’re working on. No survey forms. Just real conversations.
🧭 Map the hidden routes
What helps people feel supported? What do they avoid? Where are they going that you’re not?
🧵 Co-design with care
Use personas and future scenarios grounded in lived experience. Don’t be afraid of mess.
🌱 Celebrate the small stuff
Resilience isn’t always bold. Sometimes it’s in the hello from the bus driver or a neighbour’s cup of tea.
A final story
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to meet Dennis Goldberg — one of the anti-apartheid activists from the Rivonia trial. He invited us to a winter barbecue in South Africa. Locals from the townships. Activists from the UK. No hierarchy. Just stories, music, food.
He told us: this — people sharing space, feeling equal, feeling human — was what kept him going through 22 years in prison.
And it made me think: we spend so much time designing strategies, frameworks, models. But maybe it starts more simply. With hospitality. With generosity. With noticing the things that bring us together, not just the systems that keep us apart.
Want to try this?
If you’re working on strategy, service design or system change:
- Start with a conversation — one that makes room for surprise.
- Build a space where others feel they can shape what comes next.
- Make the work feel more like a shared city than a locked room.
And if anything in this post resonates, I’d love to hear from you.
Whether you’re home or away — I hope you find the stories that give you goosebumps. And the neighbours who pass you the mic.
