Do you ever just come across a program, process or policy and wonder … why? When we dare to ask “why,” we unlock a world of possibilities, including much needed improvements to align to user realities and needs. Yet, often times we stick to our standard processes and policies without questioning them.

I thought I’d share a story about one of my friends’ recent experiences to show how we need to ask why a little more often.

Annabelle (name changed for privacy) is a small business owner. Recently, she incorporated with the mindset to better scale her business and to prepare for future family plans. She listed herself as an employee, and thought she was contributing to EI and CPP with her accountant in order to eventually take maternity leave. Fast forward two years later, pregnant, Annabelle began reviewing her accounting to make sure everything necessary was in place as planned. Regrettably, the accounting firm she was working with never set up EI payments but furthermore did so because as a majority shareholder, accessing maternity leave benefits was actually aligned to a different program – the Self Employment Program. This information was not shared.

What I later learned about the program itself left me asking the question WHY on so many fronts.

In short, the program requires business owners to apply in order to access benefits. Upon application, the applicant must wait 12 MONTHS before a reply.

My first question was why 12 months? Many women will tell you that trying to get pregnant isn’t often a linear process that we can plan specifically. And the website itself doesn’t explain the long service standard.

My second question was to better understand what was happening during the 12 month period? If it was a question of data or reporting, couldn’t an applicant supply the prior year’s financials?

My next question was why does this program exist? Ultimately, one would argue to support small business owners. And yet, the red tape around applying (both in timelines as well as a lack of education to know that such a program exists) limits these very benefits from being delivered.

So, recognizing the needs of small business owners and the realities of both maternity and parental leave … I ask myself why haven’t we updated this program to be more accessible to the very people it aims to help.

Imagine a company that continues to operate under the same processes, never challenging their methods. As the world changes around them, they find themselves lagging behind. And while this is often more apparent in business, it should be equally as apparent in policy/program design.

We need to embrace the art of questioning and reviewing existing policies and programs if we are to invite innovation and modernization to the government table.

When we challenge the way things have always been done, we identify opportunities to streamline workflows, eliminate redundant steps, improve delivery and obtain results.