Porosity.
May 2, 2025
Bricks are not sponges. Sponges are not bricks.
Don’t believe me?
Throw a sponge at your large screen TV, then throw a brick. (please don’t). Then, try washing your car with a brick. Then build your house like a bricklayer, but using sponges held together with concrete mortar.
They aren’t the same.
Different textures, weights, critical mass, e.g.
Different POROSITY.
What is the difference between a brick and a sponge? If you think about water pouring over a brick there’s only so much absorption that can happen – but if you think about water pouring over or into a sponge – there is absorption – because the sponge is porous.
It is designed to absorb.
Likewise, the individual managerial mind, the collective mind, and in many cases, the mind of an organization, and the culture of that organization need to be more porous so as to absorb new thinking and to ensure that opportunities don’t wash away.
Opportunities don’t flow off the top of the organization like water rolling over the top of a brick, but rather new thinking and commercial opportunities can permeate and penetrate – because the organization has opened itself to being receptive and it has demonstrated an ability to absorb new ways of thinking and explore new markets, products, offerings.
In many organizations that I’ve worked on, I always use the expression “it’s better that we ask for forgiveness than permission,” because if we’re living in a culture of fear and intimidation, it stifles growth and it reduces the likelihood or the willingness of employees to bring forth the solutions and the great ideas that that they have.
A culture that doesn’t encourage thinking in collaboration results in a company that’s on borrowed time.
Organizations need to be receptive to new thinking – that fluidity that can be absorbed.
Innovate or die.
Paul Fioravanti, MBA, MPA, CTP, is the CEO & Managing Partner of QORVAL Partners, LLC, a FL-based advisory firm (founded 1996 by Jim Malone, six-time Fortune 100/500 CEO) Qorval is a US-based turnaround, restructuring, business optimization and interim management firm. Fioravanti is a proven turnaround CEO with experience in more than 90 situations in more than 40 industries. He earned his MBA and MPA from the University of Rhode Island and completed advanced post-master’s research in finance and marketing at Bryant University. He is a Certified Turnaround Professional and member of the Turnaround Management Association, the Private Directors Association, Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Association of Merger & Acquisition Advisors (AM&MA), the American Bankruptcy Institute, and IMCUSA. Copyright 2024, Qorval Partners, LLC and/or Paul Fioravanti, MBA, MPA, CTP.
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