Insight, creativity and action
At Building20, we believe work should be where people thrive because performance is aligned with purpose.
We help leadership teams unlock their full potential by focusing on what truly matters.
Our expert consultants blend behavioural science with practical strategy to deliver the insight, creativity, and action your team needs to get unstuck and start leading with confidence. We specialise in enabling leaders and teams to achieve high performance in the work that matters most.
It’s not about doing more but about doing what counts.
We understand the complexity of human systems. Our approach recognises how mindset, environment, and relationships drive both individual and organisational performance. Whether you’re leading change, shifting culture, or improving wellbeing, we bring grounded, science-based guidance that turns insight into action.
We build capability, not dependency. Our “just enough” model of external support ensures your leaders gain the tools and mindset to solve challenges independently — not just today, but well into the future.
The name Building20 draws from the legendary ‘temporary’ office structure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Its history demonstrates our core belief that the processes, tools and environments that lead to breakthrough are often counterintuitive but always rooted in respecting each other’s human potential.
Meet the team
Dr Amanda Woolley, Founder
Amanda helps people work well together, making good decisions, and treating each other with respect and compassion while flourishing as individuals. She works with groups and individuals to clarify their objectives and to develop the mindsets, strategies and behaviours that will help them get there through group facilitation and individual coaching.
She holds a PhD in the psychology of decision making and also has interests in creativity, reasoning and complex systems. Amanda is often invited to speak about working in complex systems, particularly related to health and care where she began her career. You can find links to previous and upcoming events on our news page.
Amanda’s areas of expertise are partnership development and transformation. She works with clients across organisational, professional and geographical boundaries on emerging initiatives and in rapidly changing contexts. She has supported more than 50 teams, partnerships and collaboratives to mobilise change. Amanda has put all her experience of working with cross-boundary teams, groups and partnerships into our unique development process using solution focused practice to quickly build alignment in objective, effective ways of working and consistent communication to external stakeholders.
Amanda first trained in solution focused practice in 2018 with Brief.org.uk. It’s an approach that continues to surprise her by generating positive change through simple client-centred enquiry in even the most hopeless and complex situations.
Dr Stephen Backhouse
Stephen is a consultant and advisor to organisations engaging with systemic problems. He helps clients tackle their complex leadership and multi-stakeholder challenges including sustainability, organisational restructuring and institutional health. Corporate clients include tech start-ups, management consultancies, and business design studios. Non-profit clients range from small-scale food bank and health communication charities, to multinational relief agencies and anti-human trafficking NGOs. Government clients include the civil service and commissioned work for parties on all points of the political spectrum.
Stephen is an expert in the philosophy of power and leadership development. He is an internationally recognised authority on the political thought of Søren Kierkegaard, whose writings envisioned healthy personal authenticity in the face of group dynamics and challenging cultures. Stephen uses these existential insights in his work. He has designed and taught two master’s degree courses in servant leadership, and now runs workshops and seminars in the profit and not-for-profit sectors.
Stephen has published widely and often undertakes writing commissions for universities, research firms, and think-tanks. He has held academic positions including Director of Graduates and Dean of Studies. Stephen is a director with the Good Faith Partnership, which connects stakeholder groups, and an academic advisor to Eido Research, which measures social impact. Stephen has extensive experience as a facilitator, teacher and public speaker and has communicated to thousands of people in groups large and small.
The processes, tools and environments that lead to breakthrough are often counterintuitive but always rooted in respecting each other’s human potential.