Table 1. Four practices of productive dialogue²

Practice	Summary
Active listening	Requires stakeholders/participants to not only hear the words, but also different points of view.
Respecting	Begins with accepting and acknowledging that others have things to teach us, and may involve highlighting what seems different or impossible to understand.
Suspending	When we listen to someone speak, we begin to form an opinion, and face a choice: to defend our view and resist theirs; or, we can suspend our opinion and the certainty that lies behind it. Suspension means neither suppressing what we think nor advocating it with unilateral conviction. The opposite of suspension is dogmaticism.
Voicing	Revealing what is true for you regardless of other influences that might be brought to bear