the framework vurr runs on
vurr does not work out who you are from scratch. it reads your decisions against a defined model of how people are motivated and how they move.
most tools that claim to personalise are doing pattern matching with no theory underneath. they notice you clicked a thing and show you more of that thing.
vurr's pattern recognition sits on something more specific: the self force framework, a model of human motivation created by kerttu raissar, who also founded vurr.
three forces
the framework starts from the claim that every person carries three core forces, and one of them leads.
- safety. the drive toward grounding, stability, care and preservation. safety-led people build environments where things and people are protected.
- freedom. the drive toward movement, exploration, creativity and openness. freedom-led people push at boundaries and expand what is possible.
- power. the drive toward direction, structure, influence and execution. power-led people move decisively and build systems that produce results.
these are not personality traits and the framework is careful about that distinction. they are orientations. the force through which you experience a situation, before you have decided anything about it.
three layers, twenty seven types
the leading force is the first layer. two more sit on top of it.
| layer | options | what it describes |
|---|---|---|
| essence | safety, freedom, power | the force that leads |
| motivation | peace, happiness, excitement | the emotional state you move toward |
| way | stability, variation, change | how you naturally operate |
three by three by three. twenty seven combinations, each a distinct pattern of how a person thinks, decides, leads and executes.
the twenty seven
| force | types |
|---|---|
| safety | Haven, Flow, Seeker, Certain, Clever, Observant, Serene, Luminous, Dreamy |
| freedom | Radiant, Bold, Vivid, Majestic, Resilient, Unbound, Steady, Sharp, Spirited |
| power | Mighty, Determined, Architect, Fierce, Tactical, Sleek, Grounded, Intrepid, Regal |
each type has a full description on the framework site. we keep those there rather than duplicating them here, so there is one authoritative version.
where it comes from
the framework is assembled from established research rather than invented whole.
- maslow, 1943. a theory of human motivation, establishing safety as a fundamental driver.
- mcclelland, 1961. the achieving society, thirty years of harvard research on power as a primary motivational driver in leadership contexts.
- deci and ryan, 1985. self-determination theory, establishing autonomy as a universal human need across cultures.
- fredrickson, 2004. broaden-and-build, treating peace, happiness and excitement as distinct positive states that change how people perceive and act.
the synthesis is kerttu's. the underlying findings are not new, which is the point. a typology with no research behind it is a horoscope.
what this actually changes in vurr
a generic tool has to learn you from nothing, which means the first few months of advice are the same advice everyone gets.
vurr has a structure to fit your behaviour into. when it tells you that you move fastest when constraints are clear, or that you stall specifically on decisions that need someone else's agreement, that observation is anchored in a model, not assembled from scratch out of your click history.
the honest limit: a framework is a starting hypothesis about you, not a verdict. it gets useful when it is checked against what you actually did, which is why the decision record and the outcomes matter more than the type. a type with no logged decisions behind it is just a nice word.
the framework does not categorise people to limit them. it gives them the precision to recognise their natural strengths, and the conditions in which they move most powerfully.
read the framework in full at sfframework.com.