Competition and power struggles between and within organizations are an inevitable part of business. That's not news. But an interesting item submitted to Creative Training Techniques newsletter by Mike Smith, a human resource manager back in the 1980s for Research Cottrell, Somerville, N.J., reminds me of the delicate balance trainers must strike vying for power within companies - strength that translates into healthy budgets, plentiful learning resources, appropriate staffing levels, involvement in important projects, but that does not intimidate or manipulate learners.

For over 30 years, clients have been applying The Bob Pike Group's Participant-Centered instructional system to build their learning organizations, to strengthen retention and to enrich desired results. Now, The Bob Pike Group Institute is offering an advanced training professional credential to share its expertise and experience and establish a valuable professional benchmark within the training community.

When management finds that staff is not engaging in work behaviors desired by the organization, they often turn to training as the response for "fixing" the problem. But training frequently isn't the answer. Here are five situations that won't be resolved by training: