Using your voice is easy when everyone agrees with you. But what happens when speaking up could create conflict, you need to ask for help, or the thing that needs to be said is exactly what no one wants to hear? In this episode of Ideas Love Community, Jacquelyn Fletcher Johnson sits down with bestselling author and workplace expert Amy Gallo for a candid conversation about conflict, courage, asking for help, artificial harmony, and what it takes to use your voice when things get uncomfortable. They explore why the myth of the “self-made” person gets it wrong, why some teams actually need more conflict, and why our best ideas rarely get better in isolation.
Using your voice is easy when everyone agrees with you. The real test is what happens when they don’t.
Bestselling author and workplace expert Amy Gallo has spent years studying what happens when relationships get difficult.
And it turns out conflict isn't necessarily the problem.
Sometimes, not having enough of it is.
In this episode of Ideas Love Community, Amy joins Jacquelyn Fletcher Johnson for a wide-ranging conversation about what it really takes to speak up, ask for help, disagree productively, repair relationships when we get it wrong, and keep using our voices when things get uncomfortable.
Amy shares why some organizations suffer from artificial harmony where everyone appears to agree in the meeting, while the real conversation happens afterward.
They also explore another idea at the heart of this podcast:
No one is truly self-made.
Behind our careers, ideas, opportunities, books, businesses, and breakthroughs are people who challenged us, encouraged us, introduced us, disagreed with us, opened doors, and helped us see something we couldn't see on our own.
That's why asking matters.
That's why conflict matters.
And that's why ideas love community.
Amy and Jacquelyn explore the connection between conflict and voice: how to say what needs to be said without losing connection, how to recover when you don't handle a conversation perfectly, and why the risk of staying silent deserves just as much consideration as the risk of speaking up.
Because getting your voice into the world isn't only about stepping onto a stage.
Sometimes it's raising your hand.
Making the ask.
Saying no.
Disagreeing with someone you respect.
Admitting you got it wrong.
Or saying the thing nobody else in the room is willing to say.
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IN THIS EPISODE
You'll hear Amy and Jacquelyn explore:
• Why using your voice gets harder when the stakes get higher
• Why asking for help is a skill and how to get better at it
• What the “self-made” story gets wrong about success
• Why big ideas need other people to become better
• How Amy became one of the leading voices on workplace conflict
• Why some teams suffer from too little conflict, not too much
• What “artificial harmony” looks like inside organizations
• How to disagree without destroying connection
• What to do when you lose your cool or say something you regret
• How to repair mistakes and rebuild trust
• The cost of speaking up—and the often-overlooked cost of staying silent
• Why productive disagreement can make our relationships, teams, and ideas stronger
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ABOUT AMY GALLO
Amy Gallo is a workplace expert, bestselling author, speaker, and leading voice on conflict, communication, and interpersonal dynamics at work.
She is the author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) and the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict, as well as hundreds of articles for Harvard Business Review.
From 2019 to 2025, Amy co-hosted HBR's Women at Work podcast, exploring the challenges and opportunities women encounter in the workplace. Her insights have been featured by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Marketplace, Bloomberg Business, NPR, WNYC, BBC, and ABC Australia.