
Do You Really See Yourself as a Facilitative Leader?
Lawrence Susskind closes his MIT OpenCourseWare workshop series Facilitative Leadership in the Public Sector with this fourth session, pressing participants to examine whether they actually practice facilitative leadership or just believe they do. Susskind works through the gap between self-image and behavior, asking public sector practitioners to reflect on how they handle group decision-making, conflicting interests, and consensus-building in real municipal and organizational settings. The session builds on the earlier workshops' case material, returning to specific scenarios raised in prior sessions to test whether participants' instincts default to directive management or genuine facilitation. Susskind pushes for concrete self-assessment rather than abstract theory, asking attendees to name moments where they reverted to control instead of collaboration. Recorded as part of MIT's Fall 2024 course, the talk works as a capstone for the series, synthesizing the group's discussion of power sharing, neutrality, and trust-building into a direct challenge about practiced leadership versus intended leadership.