Corporate leaders look for strong team building event ideas that will tear down the walls that we build between divisions, departments, even cubicles. Those corporate leaders have a great deal in common with one of the world's best communicators. Ronald Reagan told the world, tear down those walls. Hammer in hand the walls came tumbling down, reuniting a world torn apart by differences in philosophy. Immediately, warring factions began communicating.

Mis-communication or no communication is very costly to corporations, both in loss of production hours and duplication of efforts. In fact researchers at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, at Maryland University, put a 12 billion dollar price tag on what poor communication costs American hospitals per year. That is a staggering waste of money that could be put into salaries, programs or training. Smart corporate leaders look for ways to improve communication by seeking out new team building events. Idea driven events that will help their staff tear down walls that thwart communication.

Ridding corporations of communication silos can open lines of communication and save the bottom line. When people learn how to tear down the walls, they begin to communicate better. For example, a couple of weeks ago, I was leading a Build-A-Bike(R) team building event for a big company in Indiana, and like many companies, one of the challenges that they were having was getting people to fully communicate, to see the big picture. They had to work together to solve clues, and at the same time recognize and capitalize on individual strengths that could win them a bike part. In other words, break down communication silos. They quickly learned the value of communicating in a world without walls.

Opening lines of communication spawns creative opportunities that no one dreamed of. No one dreamed of the opportunities because the group was busy erecting walls. Effective team-building events, bring analytical and expressive together, one balancing the other. Anthony Robbins says, "To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others."

When one person's idea is shared with others, it becomes a bigger idea, splinters, and turns into ideas. The ideas morph into Big Ideas and participants understand the real value of knocking down the silo walls.

A perfectly functioning company does not "just happen." It takes work, bringing teams together in the name of communication, compatibility and cohesiveness. It is simple really. All you have to do is be open and learn how to "break down the walls."