The SMLC
One world, two minds, mapped.
Sina's Model of Layered Communication (SMLC) measures a person, a business, and a society on the same three dimensions. That's the trick: when they share one coordinate system, you can put a person inside their context and read the distance between them: the fit, or the friction.
Two sets of defaults
People carry different defaults for how to think, decide, and communicate. Neither column is right. Most friction between two capable people is a mismatch between the two, mistaken for a disagreement about the work.
- Individual initiativeFinding your place in the whole
- Linear and evolutionaryCircular and repetitive
- Rational and analyticEmotional and holistic
- Straightforward and directIndirect and circuitous
- Plan ahead, set goalsNow is the right time: do it
- Personal choiceCommunal consensus
Three ways a message fails
You don't understand
The point never lands: too difficult, too abstract, or buried.
You misunderstand
You grasp some of it, but read it differently than it was meant.
It lands differently
What arrives is not the thing the other person was trying to say.
Three dimensions, one space
| Dimension | Person | Business | Society |
|---|---|---|---|
Agency Where action comes from: the self, or the group. | Group-anchored ⇄ Self-directed | Hierarchical ⇄ Flat | Collectivist ⇄ Individualist |
Mode How you process and relate: by rule and analysis, or by relationship and intuition. | Intuitive ⇄ Analytical | Relationship-led ⇄ Process-led | Relationship-based ⇄ Rule-based |
Orientation Your stance toward risk and change: preserve and steady, or push and expand. | Cautious ⇄ Bold | Structured ⇄ Flexible | Traditional · Local ⇄ Progressive · Global |
Try the SMLC Cube
Place a person inside a business and a society and read the three pairwise fits: or switch to Compare and drop the same person into two different worlds to watch their fit change.
Try a starting point
Person
Self-directed · Analytical · Bold
- AgencyLeans self-directed
- ModeStrongly analytical
- OrientationLeans bold
Example: Sina Ghazi (That's me). Self-directed but Finland-tempered; analytical to the core; bold, patiently.
Society
Individualist · Rule-based
- AgencyLeans individualist
- ModeLeans rule-based
- OrientationBalanced (Traditional · Local / Progressive · Global)
Example: Finland (Nordic Europe). Individualist but understated; institutional trust first; quiet competence over confidence.
Reading the fit
Person↔Society
Furthest apart on Mode: the person is strongly analytical, the society is somewhat rule-based. They're aligned on Agency.
- Mode
- gap 0.5
- Orientation
- gap 0.5
- Agency
- aligned
Fit is just subtraction
Because the person and the society live in the same space, person − society is a real vector. Its length is how hard you're swimming against your context; its direction tells you where. A self-directed individual barely notices an individualist society and rubs hard against a collectivist one: same person, two frictions. That gap is what understanding has to cross, and what framing bridges.
A note on honesty
The axes map onto validated constructs: Hofstede's individualism–collectivism (which holds at both the personal and national level), Kahneman's dual-process theory, Higgins' regulatory focus, and Trompenaars' universalism–particularism (rule-based vs relationship-based trust). Two honest caveats: the three dimensions are treated as independent, though in reality they can correlate, so read distance as a guide, not a measurement. And a society's position is its prevailing default, not a claim about any individual in it; the interesting number is precisely how far a person deviates from that default.
One more thing: I earlier presented this model as the Sina Multidimensional Leadership Cube. The name has changed; the model has not.
Where I actually use it
Reading a founder vs. their team
A bold, self-directed founder and a steady, relationship-led team aren’t in conflict; they sit at different coordinates. The gap is the thing to manage.
Landing in a new culture
Drop the same person into two societies and their fit changes. That’s the whole immigrant experience, and exactly the Iran→Finland story behind this site.
Why a message misfires
Most breakdowns aren’t about facts; they’re a mismatch in defaults. Seeing the other position makes the re-frame obvious. (It’s the idea behind työ.)
Difference is the whole job.
If reading it matters to your team, let's talk.