Sigma Mentoring · Hub 04 · Resources
The IP Behind
The Curriculum.
Frameworks. Ebooks. Calculators. Role plays. Case studies. Quizzes. Playbooks. The intellectual property that underpins the Sigma curriculum — available here for HR directors and L&D leads exploring the depth of the methodology before committing to a programme, and for enrolled participants deepening their engagement between sessions.
📐 Frameworks
Proprietary Frameworks — Interactive
Nine interactive framework tools from the Sigma curriculum. Each one built to be explored independently of the programme — so you can assess the depth and rigour of the methodology before your team commits to a cohort.
The DTL Competency Pentagon
Five dimensions of digital transformation leadership capability. Click each vertex to explore what distinction looks like — and what its absence produces. The diagnostic architecture behind the DLRA assessment.
Open access
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The Translator Model
Three modes — Interrogator, Synthesiser, Communicator. The most distinctive single framework in the Sigma curriculum. The role that closes the AI governance gap between the technical layer and the board.
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The Strategic Intelligence Pyramid
Four levels of data quality. Most AI governance presentations operate at Level 2. Governance decisions require Level 3-4. The framework that diagnoses where your board’s AI information is actually operating.
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The Asian Change Architecture
Five stages — Sensing, Anchoring, Cultivating, Mobilising, Embedding. The sequence that succeeds where Western change frameworks consistently fail in high-context Asian organisations.
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The Resistance Typology
Five structural resistance types. Silent Non-Compliance, Procedural Delay, Scope Reduction, Talent Undermining, Narrative Resistance. Each requires a structural intervention — not a communication campaign.
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The Transformation Sandwich
Four structural pressures on the management layer during digital transformation. The diagnostic framework for the most common and least-acknowledged position in any transformation programme.
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The Credibility Ladder
Five rungs from Honest Uncertainty to Protective Advocacy. The sequence every manager must climb to become a genuine Digital Bridge for their team. Rung 2 — Genuine Engagement — is the non-negotiable foundation.
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The Dissolving Rituals
Six social functions dissolving under hybrid work and digital transformation — Trust Construction, Knowledge Transmission, Decision Pre-Cooking, and three more. The invisible losses that talent attrition reveals months too late.
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The Bias Audit Framework
Five governance questions every board must answer about every AI system making consequential decisions about people. No technical expertise required. All five currently absent from most Asian boardrooms.
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🧮 Calculators
Diagnostic Calculators
Scored diagnostic tools that benchmark your organisation’s position on the governance and transformation dimensions that matter most. Each calculator produces a specific score across multiple domains — giving HR directors and L&D leads a precise, evidence-based case for programme investment.
AI Governance Maturity Calculator
20 questions across four governance domains: Decision Rights, Error Accountability, Bias Audit, and Data Provenance. Produces a Governance Maturity Score with domain-level breakdown and a prioritised development roadmap — the evidence base for your next board conversation on AI governance investment.
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Transformation Sandwich Pressure Diagnostic
16 questions across four structural pressure domains: Translation, Performance Accountability, Change Authority, and Cultural Navigation. Identifies which Sandwich pressure is most acute in your management layer and which structural intervention is most urgent. For HR directors designing transformation support programmes.
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📚 Ebooks
Ebooks & Long-Form Reading
The Sigma curriculum in reading form — from the flagship guide to the programme ebooks used by enrolled participants. Selected titles are available for purchase; programme ebooks are accessible to enrolled participants.
Crossing the Fault Lines
Brendan McMahon’s guide to leading across the generational and cultural fault lines of Asia’s digital transformation. 38,000 words across eleven chapters. The foundational reading for any senior leader navigating digital transformation in Asian organisational contexts. Available for purchase.
Available for purchase
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SM-DTL-01 Course Ebook
The complete SM-DTL-01 programme in ebook format. All nine frameworks, all six module summaries, the governance audit tools, and the Personal Transformation Leadership Manifesto template. The programme in a form that travels. Available to enrolled participants and HR director preview registrants.
Participants & Preview
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SM-DTL-00 Course Ebook
The complete SM-DTL-00 programme. The Transformation Sandwich, the Credibility Ladder, the Wellbeing Signal Radar, and all fourteen tools — in a structured reading format. For managers to use between sessions and for HR directors assessing the manager-level programme.
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🎭 Role Plays
Role Play Simulations
Sigma’s signature role play simulations — each one placing participants in a real-pressure scenario that tests the programme frameworks under realistic conditions. Designed for facilitator-led delivery with full briefing packs, secret briefs, and debrief guides.
The Niigata Accord
Sigma’s signature negotiation simulation. A Stag Hunt game theory model with nemawashi as a credible commitment mechanism. Japanese and English versions. Used in the Oxford Pathway at Hertford College. Tests cross-cultural negotiation intelligence under real pressure. Facilitator guide, secret briefs, and debrief framework included.
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The Varanesia Governance Simulation
The SM-DTL-01 capstone role play. Varanesia Digital — a Southeast Asian company eighteen months into its AI transformation. A data governance incident and a key resignation arrive simultaneously. Tests all five DTL-01 modules under realistic pressure. The governance architecture either holds or reveals its fragility.
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The Shanghai Event
The SM-NEG-01 role play simulation. A two-part negotiation where the power dynamics reverse at the mid-point. Tests BATNA recalculation, face management under pressure, and the cultural signal reading that determines whether the relationship survives the deal outcome. Full cultural briefing and facilitator guide included.
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📋 Case Studies
Case Studies
Real companies. Real decisions. Real cross-cultural complexity. Every Sigma case study is selected for what it teaches about the human and cultural dimension of the challenge — not the technology or the financials. Each one illuminates a specific leadership or commercial failure mode.
Varanesia Digital
The signature case study company of the DTL programme. A composite Southeast Asian technology company navigating AI transformation — governance incidents, talent pressure, cultural fracture lines, and the resistance typology playing out in real time. Used across six DTL modules.
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Grab — Workflow Redesign
Sprint cycle reduction through process architecture, not tool adoption. How Grab’s approach to AI workflow redesign demonstrated the 2.8× multiplier and what it reveals about the leader-first vs tool-first methodology. Used in SM-AFL-01.
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Samsung — Middle Management & AI
Reframing AI from threat to decision architect amplifier. The most resistant cohort in AI adoption — directors aged 40-55 — and the specific leadership approach that shifted their engagement. The cultural intelligence dimension of AI adoption. Used in SM-AFL-01.
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TSMC — The Trust Curve
Graduated AI adoption in a precision-critical manufacturing environment. How TSMC built the organisational trust architecture that made AI adoption in high-stakes contexts possible — and what it teaches about the sequence that matters. Used in SM-AFL-01.
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BYD — Cross-Cultural Negotiation
BYD’s international expansion negotiations and the cultural architecture that shaped them. The face dynamics, the guanxi obligations, and the decision pre-cooking that Western counterparts consistently misread. Used in SM-NEG-01.
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The Hiring Bias Incident
Cultural bias in automated screening and the leader’s interrogation responsibility. An AI hiring system with a 94% aggregate accuracy rate — and what the subgroup analysis revealed that no board meeting had asked for. The Bias Audit Framework in action. Used in SM-AFL-01 and SM-DTL-01.
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✅ Quizzes
Knowledge Assessments
Scenario-based knowledge assessments for enrolled participants. Each quiz tests application of the programme frameworks in realistic situations — not recall of definitions. Scored with module-level breakdowns and distinction thresholds.
SM-DTL-01 Knowledge Assessment
30 scenario-based questions across six modules. Tests governance vocabulary, the Intelligence Pyramid, the Bias Audit, the Asian Change Architecture, and the Resistance Typology. Distinction threshold: 80%. Module-level score breakdown included. For enrolled participants preparing for Role Play 3.
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SM-DTL-00 Knowledge Assessment
25 scenario-based questions across five modules. Tests the Transformation Sandwich, Credibility Ladder, Wellbeing Signal Radar, Cultural Navigation tools, and the Integration Role Play scenarios. For managers and programme designers assessing readiness for the Integration Role Play capstone.
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SM-NEG-01 Negotiation Archetype Diagnostic
A three-part quiz: negotiation archetype diagnostic, cross-cultural scenario test, and strategy quiz. Produces a personalised negotiation profile across the Sigma archetype framework — identifying cultural blind spots and the specific BATNA and face management development areas for each participant.
Participants
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📒 Playbooks
Playbooks & Field Guides
Practical field guides designed to travel with participants back into their organisations. Not reference documents — operational tools. Each playbook is built around the programme’s capstone exercise and is designed to be used the Monday after completion.
AI Governance Playbook
The SM-DTL-01 capstone document. Three Manifesto commitments, the Governance Audit results for your highest-consequence AI systems, the Bias Audit status sheet, and the 90-day accountability framework. Designed to be presented to your board within 30 days of programme completion.
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Manager Action Plan
The SM-DTL-00 capstone document. Three specific, testable commitments across upward communication, leadership development, and cultural grounding. “Can I answer yes or no in 90 days?” is the specificity test. With accountability partner framework and 30-day follow-up protocol.
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Personal Negotiation Playbook
The SM-NEG-01 capstone. Built during the programme using the participant’s own negotiation archetype diagnostic, BATNA templates, Cultural Briefing Generator outputs, and the Tactic Matrix calibrated for their specific market context. A personalised negotiation toolkit — not a generic template.
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🎓 IP Programmes
International Programmes & The Oxford Pathway
The Sigma curriculum extends beyond online and in-person delivery into residential international programmes. The Oxford Pathway is the flagship — but the IP Programme architecture also includes optional 1–2 week International Business and Culture immersions for cohorts seeking a deeper residential experience.
The Oxford Experience
Three days at Hertford College, University of Oxford. The Sigma Leadership Hub frameworks applied in a residential, cross-cultural cohort environment. The Niigata Accord simulation. Governance and leadership masterclasses. By invitation following SM-DTL-01 completion. Cohorts drawn from Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
By invitation
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International Business & Culture (IP Programmes)
Optional 1–2 week intensive residential programmes combining the Sigma curriculum with deep cultural immersion in a specific Asian market. Designed for cohorts of Western professionals entering Asian markets, and for Asian professionals building their cross-cultural business fluency before a global posting. Enquire for programme details and availability.
Enquire for availability
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8Resource Types
Frameworks · Calculators · Ebooks · Role Plays · Case Studies · Quizzes · Playbooks · IP Programmes
9Interactive Frameworks
All nine proprietary DTL frameworks available as interactive tools — the methodology made explorable before commitment.
28Years of IP
Every resource in this hub was developed through direct field observation across seven Asian markets over 28 years.
OxfordValidated IP
The Sigma frameworks are used in Oxford University teaching. The Niigata Accord is part of the Hertford College Pathway.
Explore Before You Commit
The IP Is the Proof.
The IP Is the Proof.
Start With the Frameworks.
The nine interactive frameworks are open access — start there. If the intellectual depth of the methodology matches what your organisation needs, register interest for full preview access: course ebooks, diagnostic calculators, and a direct conversation with Brendan McMahon about your specific context.
