Big Moves
All roads lead to Holland. Some just take longer (and involve more packing tape).
After around 30 years in the Lansing area, my family is heading back to het moederland: Holland, Michigan. We’re ready for wooden shoes and windmills, tulips and traditions—and yes, three meals a day at Russ’. I’ll keep working remotely, just with more lake-effect optimism.
What we’re not excited about is the move itself. We have accumulated an impressive amount of stuff over the years. Only one kid can take furniture right now, so the rest is my problem. Lately, I’ve been staring down boxes and packing tape, asking myself hard questions—mostly, why do we still own this? Somewhere between box number 47 and the fourth duplicate stapler, it hit me: moving is a nearly perfect metaphor for public relations. And more specifically, for knowing when it’s time to let go of a message, a strategy, or something else that simply isn’t working anymore.
The Optimism Phase
Every move begins the same way. This won’t be that bad. You buy boxes. You label a few. You tell yourself you’ll pack “a little each night.”
This is also how most PR efforts begin—right before reality shows up with a clipboard. Soon, you realize you own far more than you remembered. Half of it doesn’t fit neatly in boxes. Some of it is emotionally complicated. And suddenly you’re carefully wrapping a mug you don’t even like anymore because it survived three previous moves and now feels… important.
Some people ask themselves, “What’s for dinner?” In the VK household, we drive to Russ’ and ask, “What’s NOT for dinner?”
Photo credit: TripAdvisor
PR is like that, too. Messages sometimes hang around long after they’ve stopped serving a purpose. Strategies linger because they once worked, or because someone important liked them in 2017. Tactics get protected not because they’re effective, but because they’re familiar.
Letting go is harder than it looks.
Building the Right System
Author/organizer Marie Kondo famously wrote that the best way to downsize is to hold an item and ask yourself, “Does it spark joy?” In the cleaning and moving nightmare that followed my parents’ loss a few years ago, I added the SVK corollary, “I’ll have the memory forever. Do I really need this object?”
Past successes shouldn’t dictate your future PR strategy in a world that’s constantly changing, digitizing, and AI-ing. Your audiences are constantly shifting and adapting to new realities. It’s important that your organization bakes a lot of discipline into its annual PR/comms strategy work. What are you measuring, and where are your results beginning to flatten? What are your competitors doing, and what can you alter to make your work better?
In short, what’s “sparking joy” in your PR results today, and what should you leave behind in pursuit of something with even more promise?
As your team has these conversations, you can prepare someone to bring up what my husband usually says about babies and bathwater (he is a bit of a hoarder, NGL). That’s an important conversation to have. Of course, your organization can’t afford to constantly shift its PR approaches, lest the overall brand take a hit. But it IS worth being strategic and setting specific, measurable limits to know when you’re chasing down something that has outlived its purpose.
The Things You Swear You’ll “Deal with Later”
Every move includes boxes labeled “MISC.” It’s the stuff that doesn’t fit in a specific category, or that you’re on the fence about including at the new spot. You carefully pack it, load it into the truck, and then keep it in a spare room for months while you make up your mind. I’m reminding myself constantly that it’s important to bring those things out and look at them before we go. Is there a way to repurpose these items to better align with the rest of the plan?
The pinnacle of Dutch culture
The same is true for an organization’s PR planning.
One of my favorite business authors, Jim Collins, writes, “If you have more than three priorities, you don't have any…Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.” I’m guessing Mr. Collins doesn’t love the idea of a “MISC” box. In a world that rewards leanness and efficiency—or, even better, a tight, targeted brand identity—it’s critical to get those items out and make decisions before you pay someone to haul them around for you without a clear plan or purpose.
The Real Lesson: Space Is a Choice
Moving isn’t just about getting from one house to another. It’s about deciding what deserves space in the next chapter.
PR works the same way. It’s not about saying and doing everything, just to get it all out there. It’s about choosing what matters most—and being willing to let go of what no longer does.
Both will still involve stress, caffeine, and at least one moment where you wonder why you agreed to this. But when it’s done right, you end up somewhere better. Preferably with a little pair of Dutch figurines kissing in your front yard and a tummy full of stroopwafels.
Sometimes the smartest move isn’t packing better. It’s deciding what doesn’t need to come with you at all.