The KVD Raison d'être: enabling opportunities for living a meaningful life
KVD reframing is a design consultancy aiming at innovations seeking socio-cultural improvement of the condition humaine. Some call that Progress and at KVD we want to achieve Progress by enabling humans to be ever increasingly self determined in choosing how to live a meaningful life. We don't have a rigid view on what Progress involves but treat it as a complex phenomenon. By our book, wisdom is not to be found in the extremes. Instead, taking an Aristotelian approach, we practice the art of establishing the proper Balance.
As far as Progress is concerned, Balance is challenged by two forces which are defined by pairs of extremes at either side of a continuum: Instant results against Long term progress being the first, and Self interest versus Altruism the second. The first represents the timing horizon humans expect their improvement to take effect: are they demanding progress right away or are they talking about benefits for future generations. The second dimension juxtaposes a desire for an open, global orientation with attitudes circling around concepts such as safety, localness, homeground, trust and heritage.
In the diagram we have illustrated how these two forces give birth to four types of Progress and lead KVD in the way we pursue Progress: Progress to accomplish Global Co-existence, Progress to accomplish Universal Arousal, Progress to accomplish Intimate Security and Progress to accomplish Regional Bonding. At KVD we don't label any of these four types good or bad. All of them are foolish to pursue in isolation since all of them are based on psychological needs deeply imprinted in human DNA. Whether they make sense depends on the particular context.