Busy Is Broken

In Busy Is Broken, Bill Gallagher examines how leaders' constant busyness and excessive personal effort often become the bottleneck preventing organizations from scaling effectively.

He uses metaphors like reefing a sailboat and profiles of leaders to illustrate shifts from micromanagement to empowerment, superheroism to self-awareness, and always-on to rest and recovery.

The book offers practical invitations—such as reclaiming calendar time and delegating decisions—to help leaders redistribute work and enable exponential organizational growth.

Drawing on interviews, case studies, and his Scaling Up framework, Gallagher provides actionable steps to redesign a leader's role and foster sustainable systems.

Overall, the book champions less force and more flow: balancing effort so teams can perform consistently without depending on heroics.