Building the capacity to listen is perhaps the most important practice of all. In western cultures and organizations, deep listening is not a well-developed skill and yet it has the power to transform our world. 

In a Bohm Dialogue group, you'll be doing far more listening than speaking. You are invited to listen to learn.

• Listening with presence and curiosity, hearing the tone, cadence, pitch, pauses, movements, meaning, energy, emotions, values and intentions of the speakers.
• Listening with all your senses and intuition, to the whole person behind the words.
• Listening to what is happening within your own thoughts, body, emotions, and deep inner guidance.
• Listen and be present to the beauty, intimacy and richness of the silent moments.
  

Listening happens on several levels. In the Dialogue, you are invited to practice and develop capacities to listen deeper for higher learning and broader perspective. For example, in the Theory U model, there are 4 levels of listening, each being more open and present:

• Level 1 - Downloading:
  • At this level, people are only listening to confirm what they already know and are not really present or learning much. Minds are somewhere else and people can tell that we are not really 'with them.' Productive conversations are unlikely to happen here. Minds are closed so open Dialogue just does not happen here.
• Level 2 - Factual:
  • At this level, people are listening for facts that they don't already know in order to broaden knowledge. Minds are opening, but people are not paying attention to feelings, emotions or the nuances of the conversation, so clues to other important information and insight is often missed.
• Level 3 - Empathic
  • At the empathic level of listening, people are becoming more present to feelings, emotions and the nuance of the conversation. Connection is deeper and more genuine. This listening helps people to feel more safe to share their perspectives and understood. With an open mind and open heart, greater alignment and coherency can be achieved. Conversation is more constructive.
• Level 4 - Generative
  • At this deep level of listening, people begin listening to the system as a whole. Presence is at its peak. Core ideas and greater potentials emerge out of the conversation. This is a safe, creative, energizing, high learning space. This is the ultimate goal of the practice of listening in our Dialogue.