Expanding Perception. Changing what becomes possible.
A strategic and creative advisory helping people and organizations become more fully alive and resonant.
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Writer · Speaker · Strategic Advisor
I'm Looking for Signs of Life
In people. In brands. In leadership. In organizations.
Some environments expand possibility. Others slowly diminish it. People and organizations thrive when they feel alive, expressive, connected, and resonant. I help uncover the signs of life that create more meaningful brands, individuals, leaders, and possibilities.
The future belongs to organizations that still feel human.
We are surrounded by systems that optimize for performance, efficiency, certainty, and control, but humans need aliveness, expression, connection, and resonance. Drawing on experience across corporate law, executive leadership, strategic advisory, communications, brand integrity, ESG and CSR strategy, innovation, and creativity, Shai Littlejohn Studio helps leaders, founders, and organizations build more meaningful, resonant, and creatively alive brands, cultures, and experiences.
In an increasingly AI-driven world, meaningful growth is shaped not only by strategy, but by creativity, emotional intelligence, perspective, culture, and human experience. Aliveness is a strategic advantage.
Grounded in The Diamond, our multidimensional approach to perspective, creativity, and possibility, the Studio helps organizations think more expansively, strengthen resonance, and build brands, cultures, and experiences that feel more thoughtful, connected, and alive.
How We Create What Becomes Possible:
Helping capable people who feel stuck, discouraged, disconnected, or uncertain reconnect with creativity, confidence, and what becomes possible.
Helping leaders create cultures with a pulse
Helping organizations create more resonant experiences for customers and employees
Helping brands reconnect with what makes them meaningful
What Art Cure Reveals About Creativity, Leadership, and Human Experience
For years, I’ve believed that creativity is not separate from leadership, strategy, innovation, or meaningful work. It is part of how people process experience, expand perception, build connection, and imagine new possibilities.
Finding Your Own Rhythm
As we grow older, we can become more conscious of how the rhythm of our life makes us feel as the beats are being stitched together. The rhythm is how we feel when we’ve rushed through a full morning of meetings, glance at the clock and notice that we won’t have no time to stop for lunch or make a personal call. It’s that feeling around 7pm that we’re running out of time before today ends and another day begins.
When Your Values Collide
I relished being a business-minded, analytical, problem-solving professional, but I also longed to be a successful creative artist. It felt as if each side - my lawyer side and my artsy side - was preventing me from moving full speed ahead in either of those respective directions. Forging ahead with one side didn’t feel right when it would cause me to abandon the other. What was my career without the balancing effect of music and creativity?
My Chat with Rice University’s Graduate School of Business
Our conversation came full circle to a short history of my life focused on law, to one eventually balanced with music and business. I shared the story of my mom’s illness and how one simple sentence became my inspiration. Click the photo to hear our conversation.
The Conversation That Changed My Life
After my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer, I flew to visit her at least monthly. I was General Counsel of the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission during that time, so having a flexible leave policy and the ability to work remotely from Houston was the only way I made it through.
How to Make Sure Your Cup Is Full
The farmer who wants to produce a high quality harvest to sell to the market at premium prices must execute a strategy that fuels her intention to produce a quality bean. She must exercise patience, and craft, to allow the tree to time produce. It can take 3 to 4 years of cultivating a coffee tree before it ever produces fruit. There are routine steps that all farmers must take, but if she can tend to the trees under just the right conditions, the cherries will ripen right on time.
Is Ethical Sourcing A Winning Strategy? Case study: Tony’s Chocolonely
As a chocolate brand, Tony’s could elect to ignore human rights, but it instead it chooses a supply chain strategy that includes 100% ethical sourcing of cocoa. Its customers have been willing to pay a premium because the brand pairs high-quality product with an activist mission. Customers essentially get to become part of a global movement.
When Life Is Like A Fresh Fruit Salad
Someone, somewhere right now, is prying open a watery can of fruit cocktail and about to take a bite. In between the toddler-sized chunks of pear cores, triangular bits of peaches, and olive colored, halved grapes, that sad someone is surveying the can for a single crushed piece of scarlet, red cherry.
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