The training department may want to retreat to what is known, but this is an opportunity for training & development folks to show how they can help the organisation. I'm not even talking about extremely innovative approaches here, but a shift from training delivery to performance improvement. The innovation will be in applying it to your particular circumstances. Things like - "here's how we can save money and still get new hires up to speed" or "let's support the sales force with web based job aids so they don't need as much training" - might get more attention when everyone is focused on the bottom line.