HomeWorks × Taller Hoy

Building the next generation of college success through systems design.

A research and implementation partnership between HomeWorks and Taller Hoy.

The Challenge

HomeWorks has built something remarkable.

How do we intentionally design the conditions that produce even better outcomes?

Our Philosophy

Complex educational challenges rarely have a single expert with the answer. Instead, they require combining the lived expertise of students and staff with structured methods for observing systems, generating ideas, testing solutions, and learning from evidence.

Let’s use design thinking to solve a known problem: on a local bus, the place where riders get on the bus and pay their fare is the same place that some riders can exit. The problem is that it takes too long for the riders to get on and off so the bus is idling for significant periods of time.

The experts in the case can be

  • the bus driver

  • the bus riders

But it can also be people who have never been on the bus but are acutely aware of the bus idling due to how it impacts their lives:

  • commuters who drive the same path as the bus

  • pedestrians on the sidewalk

  • residents near stops that deal with pollution and traffic near their homes

  • businesses that rely on traffic moving smoothly

While there are obvious “experts,” a lot of people have intimate knowledge of the bus and can solve the problem. The key is to come to some consensus about the problem, hold empathy for the varied experiences that each stakeholder is bringing, and iterate knowing you’re going to iterate more.

Conscious Accountability

This concept is borrowed from the work of David C. Tate, Marianne S. Pantalon, and Daryn H. David.

Teams can achieve high performance before they develop deep trust. However without trust, accountability eventually becomes compliance, burnout, or conflict.

Therefore, performance and trust have to grow together.

CONNECT

This concept is borrowed from the work of David C. Tate, Marianne S. Pantalon, and Daryn H. David.

Teams can achieve high performance before they develop deep trust. However without trust, accountability eventually becomes compliance, burnout, or conflict.

Therefore, performance and trust have to grow together.