Sofia Bustamante

Hello! Nice to meet you! This page is a brief intro to me, Sofia. Like more and more people of Generation M I have several identities:

• Social Entrepreneur: running London Creative Labs: facilitating change through social business (Launched in August 2009!)
• Passionate and dedicated facilitator and coach under turn up the courage

Past identities

• Social Technology  Innovator: helping organisations to increase online participation, via Radical Inclusion. May-Nov, 2009.
• Setting up a co-working space for local community projects via Melanin Partnership, 2007-2008.
• Lifeworth Coach for Jem Bendell’s Lifeworth 2003-2008.

To see my CV, best have a look at my Linked-In Profile.

Here is a <100 word expression of who I am:

Sofia is a community builder. She does this through facilitation, coaching, mediation and nurturing social innovation.

She is also a latin dancer, “carnival of change” pioneer (someone who believes life can be lived as a carnival, that together change can be undertaken as a dance, and that we can dare to write our own futures), lover of Aikido,  The Work by Byron Katie, warrior of light, poet, general social misfit and monkey.

Here is my whole-person S-curve: (a tool that I use to help people define and communicate their purpose)

I call this diagram a ‘whole person S-curve’. ‘S-Curves’ help to show when systems change – jump from one state to another. The S-part indicates one system dying whilst another one is being born. There is an overlap which is demonstrated by the ‘S’ overlapping. It is difficult to describe in words! Hence the usefulness of the diagram. We can use this idea to show how we as individuals evolve. We have different stages in our life. Who better to describe this than ourselves? That is what S-curves are all about. We can own our story. This then is complementary to a CV. After all, it is artificial to think that we start contributing to the world only after we graduate or at the start of our first job. For some people, that is the point at which they stop contributing in any authentic way. Many square pegs try to fit into a round whole and their CV reflects a history of misfit. The S-curve enables people to recover their true contribution and express it with dignity.

S-curves have become part of a toolbox for career coaching and I work with clients to help them to produce their own. Essentially, S-Curves map a person from age 0 to now. Feel free to have a good look. You should be able to see the evolution of a human being and as I mention, this can be very powerful when combined with a CV.

My Background I have a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London. I started my career at British Airways, where I moved from systems analysis and project management to learning and facilitation. I then left BA to move more fully into people and organisational development, and, after a number of small roles across various industries, have run a business as a coach, facilitator and change agent since 2005. I have a balance of analytical and intuitive skills and experience, straddling engineering and business analysis, to personal and team development

I am a change agent and have gone through my own journey towards the work that reflects my core identity. I am living proof that a big change in career is not only possible but worthwhile! I have created a life where my work is fully aligned with my core purpose. You can see how my work evolves in line with my own personal evolution. And that the journey continues. You can see how the deeper motivation for my work is intricately linked to my earliest challenges. Each part of my journey has contributed to achieving my deepest longing and my business offering (creating healthy community) is based on this.