Reflective Structured Dialogue (RSD) is an approach, rather than a model.
In its most rigorous form, RSD has a particular format: small circles with a facilitator, several go-round questions that follow a particular question arc, time to ask each other questions of genuine curiosity, and a closing. It is marked by particular structures: communication agreements, think/write/speak, pause between speakers, etc. In this form, dialogue is a noun.
But RSD is also a way of being—of communicating, listening, reflecting, and asking questions in ways that restore trust, deepen mutual understanding, and build the relationships that make change possible. It is flexible and adaptable, able to meet the needs of specific contexts and populations (for example, higher ed classrooms or community meetings).
In this form, RSD is dialogic. It’s a modifier. You might have dialogic meetings, dialogic lesson plans, dialogic town hall meetings, dialogic strategic planning, or dialogic decision making. In all these cases, RSD serves as an approach to design more engaged, connected, and purposeful gatherings.
In practice, this means that dialogic practices, structures, and principles can be infused into or modify many other existing formats, gatherings, and moments, to support the purposes of RSD: increased trust, mutual understanding, and stronger relationships.
There isn’t a road map or an answer key for exactly how to integrate dialogic practices into every situation. But there are key principles to keep in mind. In the next section, each of these is reframed as a question to ask yourself when trying to build more dialogic spaces and engagements.