Back in the day, when I gathered my team for a meeting, it was because I had something to tell them.
A new project, direction, technology, or idea I’d conceived behind closed doors that I wanted to announce.
As we discussed it as a group, my idea would change. Morph into something better, or possibly entirely different.
Not just through the exchange of ideas, but through the process of dialogue with my team.
Afterword I remember thinking, “When I called the meeting I thought I knew what I wanted and why. But, by the end, what I wanted and why changed. I wonder how that happened?”
I stumbled on this quote last week while researching Relational Leadership, from Mikhail Bakhtin, which resonated with me. (Emphasis added by me.)
_“Dialogue here is not the threshold to action, it is the action itself. _
_ It is not a means for revealing, for bringing to the surface the already-made character of a person; no, in dialogue a person not only shows himself outwardly, but he becomes for the first time that which he is – and, we repeat, not only for others but for himself as well._
To be means to communicate dialogically.” (Bakhtin, 1984)
Heady stuff, but worth considering.
This might also explain why I talk to myself throughout the day, a bit like a crazy person. And, it explains why when I write out my ideas, I find myself in a different place.
These are forms of dialoguing with myself.
The next time you sit down with your team, consider that the dialogue “is not a means for revealing” your ideas, but is how you discover and know your idea truly for the first time.
With that in mind, meetings with your team can take on a whole new purpose.
Share this with your team, and see what they think. 
Best,
Marcus
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