Get help, especially if you need a new vision. Other executives not invested in the project can help you think beyond the existing business plan. Are there companies with the same problems? Find out how they are solving them. Consider ventures with these companies or vendors. Change your mind-set from "How much do I need?" to "How little can I do this with?"

Communicate. Develop communications to explain changes. Be open and truthful. Don't let rumours beat you to the punch. If appropriate, align the new plan with the business strategy that changed. Above all, be positive. Sometimes things happen for the best. That necessary change could turn out to be an advantage.

Wimp not. One of the truisms I discovered in my career was that it is harder to kill a failing project than to let it drift along. So it takes courage to show the flexibility to adapt to emerging environmental issues. There will surely be some who will criticise change - maybe even the same people who were grumbling in the hallway about the lack of progress. Keep your focus on what's possible. When success is on the horizon, the grumblers will begin to take credit! I have one caution: Flexibility is not a strategy you can invoke too often without earning the "Flavour of the Month" award.

Build in flexibility. Because this world we live in is ever-changing, it's wise to build as much flexibility and agility into your business plan as you can. That will help obviate the need to make dramatic changes frequently. A sound start is to know your environment and fit the solution to the problem. Avoid being a solution in search of a problem - the "Johnny One-Note" phenomenon. I once observed a new employee try to apply a solution he had utilised successfully in his previous company: Buy a well-known software package, install it with no modifications, and change all business processes to fit the package design. Unfortunately, the size, complexity and cultures of the two companies were very different. It resulted in a very costly, painful failure for the company and the individual.

Create a range of alternative plans that fit different scenarios. Build into them the triggers that will cause a shift in strategy when the circumstances match a different scenario. Conduct regular reviews in which the original assumptions are retested for relevance. It is changes in these assumptions that will be the leading indicators of a changing environment.

Since funding is frequently the most volatile factor in planning, develop upscale and downscale versions of your business plans. Align the features of a plan with a minimum investment figure and time line. That will be the lowest level of implementation that can succeed. Then outline the enriched version with its investment level and time line. This will force you to think through the ramifications of having to downscale before it becomes an emergency. It can also preclude falling into the trap of getting approval for an enriched business plan but not the funding to support it.

Remember that in today's world, success is not about being the greatest thinker but about who can get things done. Oliver Wendell Holmes said it best: "Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but sail we must, and not drift, nor lie at anchor."

Before retiring in 1999, Patricia Wallington was corporate vice president and CIO at Xerox. She is now president of Florida-based CIO Associates