Offers guidelines for determining when and how to recruit subject matter experts (SMEs) and for ensuring that they deliver high quality training. Considers common problems of SMEs, such as giving too much information, conflicts with their job commitments, and stage fright. (JOW)

Describes a program at Pacific Bell that foreshadows a role for training professionals as brokers of learning. Looks at the initiative from three perspectives: (1) the corporate leader who champions it; (2) the training executive who stewards it; and (3) the business-unit heads who implement it. (Author)

Lessons learned by two neophyte trainers in a corporate quality improvement program include (1) the importance of team training; (2) training across levels, mixing different departments and responsibilities; and (3) concreteness and small group instruction. (SK)

Offers advice from the upper echelon of females in the training profession: (1) learn the business; (2) get line experience; (3) stop thinking like a trainer; (4) educate executives; (5) partner with the powerful; (6) exceed expectations; (7) develop coping strategies; (8) be realistic; (9) align values; and (10) organize. (JOW)

Zenker offers 10 tips for keeping TV-era audiences interested in presentations. Chapman gives advice for trainers on coaching outside speakers for effective training presentations. (SK)

The barrier to a company's performance may be a conflict of organizational values and culture with those of the training profession. Elements of this value system that create the invisible wall are egalitarianism, people focus, "guerilla" training tactics, and emphasis on human interaction. (JOW)

Executives do not always fully understand or support quality improvement initiatives. A four-step model for guiding human resource development practitioners in educating executives about quality involves establishing a quality position; a shared vision; a quality management system; and goals, strategy, and plan. (JOW)

Explains ways to resolve training session conflicts in four contexts: supervisor/employee teams, trainee interaction during breaks, group work, and trainer/trainee interaction. (SK)

A corporate university is an educational institution run by a company that functions as the umbrella for a firm's total education requirements. Such institutions often use innovations such as satellite-based and Web-based learning. Training professionals take on new roles such as technology specialists, alliance managers, and account managers.…