• Apathy: Staff may feel there is no need for change, particularly if the business is already perceived as successful in the wider world. There may be room for improvement in a given process, but the employee attitude is ‘it isn’t broken, so why fix it?’.
• Cynicism: Even if everyone involved with the business agrees with the need for change, the staff may see a structured approach as over-elaborate and excessive. Worse, they may see it simply as an excuse for managers to avoid dealing with problems immediately, on an ad hoc basis.
• Lack of resources: Change is a big commitment, and there may not be enough time/staff/money to have people trained to administer quality initiatives, or even just to pause to review the business effectively. This is usually voiced as ‘we are too busy to make changes,’ which if true would not bode well for the future of the business.
• Abuse: Middle managers in the business who have any of the attitudes outlined above may take the opportunity to assign staff or themselves to quality work to avoid what they regard as more difficult front-line activity. Also, staff may perceive benchmarking events (discussed later in this article) as avoidance of ‘genuine’ work.

These obstacles may be difficult to overcome, but not impossible. The key to successful change is rigorous and enthusiastic management of the change process, and making sure every employee of the business is involved in some way. Communicating with the whole business openly may even result in some of those negative attitudes changing for the better.