Tuesday, October 20, 2009

65. Self-Organization


Ran across this description of Self-Organization in a really cool book called "The Unshackled Organization". It is a good easy read but has some amazing insights into organization. Here are their bullet points about self-organization. I will let you make the application :)

  1. Self-Organization is a self-generated and self-guided process. This means change is neither a hierarchically controlled nor an externally driven process.
  2. Self-Organization moves beyond the idea of a system as an inert mass characterized by an innate resistance to change. Instead, change is the activation of a systems inherent potential for transformation…
  3. Self-Organization results from the utilkization, even the enhancement of random, accidental and unexpected events. Change, then, is not the suppression of chaos; it is order emerging out of chaos…
  4. Self-Organization represents a system undergoing a revolution prompted by far-from equilibrium conditions. This is vastly different than the trasditional model where change is nothing more than a mere shift in system functioning and a subsequent return to equilibrium.