James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »
Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy » 
Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related » 
Jeremy Middleton is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of FTSE-200 company HomeServe » 
Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » Communications.....is an essential tool, as a Barclaycard advert pointed out more than a decade ago, "Both fluent .....sadly in different languages". I shall come on to talk about this in more detail later on and indeed to link to Mathew Rippon's blog a few days ago about 'outcomes'.
First though a family tale of country folk working together to make hay while the sun shines - before it had become a metaphor. The 30 second explanation is grass grows with soft refreshing rain until it is at a maximum sweetness when you then cut it and wilt it, the sun dries out the grass on one side you turn it a few times to get all the moisture out and then collect it in to stooks - in the old days - balers now but it into convenient rectangles weighing up to a tonne.
Now that is the text book version - reality/sods law is that you get it just right and then as you are about to collect it in it P**...Pours with soft refreshing rain at the wrong moment, and for the next week.... until the golden hay is a black soggy non-nutritious mess.
Stay with me, our Brown family had cousins who farmed at The Fawns around the time of the second world war, and they used to hang a white sheet flapping out of the upstairs window when they needed extra labourers to get the hay baled, this could be seen instantly for several miles...yes indeed speed was of the essence ....before it PPPPrecipitated down again!
So are we getting the modern day communication right within the business world in the north east in 2008?
Matthew Rippon's blog asks if we need outcomes, yes would be the short answer and in part because the previous 'game' in town was outputs which were often designed to look very sensible in one direction down the telescope but not so in the other!
So I have sympathy for his point which is that public money ought to be buying more than mediocrity and so-so projects but the public outcry at the loss of taxpayers money - all translated into teacher and nurse equivalents makes the politics a little nerve jangling.
What we need of course is to have a can do attitude and communicate simply and in a language we all can understand. The best way to double your success rate is double your failure rate may be true but not palatable to people with a nervous disposition!
Lastly since I have just read The Journal's 500 of the most influential people in the north east list I am struck by who is in and not in...I'll not mention names but I would change 10%.The fact 500 people can transform the region is as inspiring as it scary. Lets us see this pull-out as the snapshot it is and make sure that all listed people communicate well in and behalf of the region so that the north east becomes the best place to live, work and play. Because if the 500 most influential are not the 500 most talented what will that do for the region?
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