Too drastic a headline for you?  What is the significance of rigor mortis in business?  Interesting question. 

What if a lack of rigour in your internal alignment creates rigor mortis in your productivity?  Don’t buy it?  Fair enough, who says you have to?  It all depends on what you are interested in and aiming for. 

Long term competitive business or a business that’s ‘going ok’, ‘holding on in there’?  For the latter, internal alignment of your people’s  individual objectives all the way up to your strategic growth goals is optional.  So you’re ok. 

For the former, they are business critical.  Only a clear line of sight that enables each of the people working in your organisation to understand exactly how what they do every day makes a contribution to achieving the long term competitive goals of the company, will ensure the commitment and passion of those people to get you there. 

Ever heard the line ‘people are your greatest asset’? – Thought so.  

What’s your view on that?  Do you believe it? Or do you see them as your biggest risk? – And then again, your biggest assets often are your biggest risk… 

Which is why you want to ensure you manage your people effectively and with care; rigorously ensuring clarity about the behavioural and performance standards; equally rigorously holding everyone to account for upholding those standards ; making sure that everyone accepts their personal responsibility for them and engaging everyone in continuous improvement of them. 

And you know what’s fascinating?  You do that, and there will be no sign of rigor mortis in your productivity.