Self organisation occurs in a wide variety of inanimate (for example crystal formation) and animate settings; (like examples I already gave, e.g. swarms of birds, beehive and anthill construction, distribution of trees in a forest).
We are concerned with its application in human settings – in particular within a family, where behavioural patterns build up over time, beginning when two people meet and a family is started, and ultimately establishing a culture which has elements of, but is different to the cultures of the families of origin of the family starters.
The established cultures that become sedimented and cause particular patterns of behaviour in families are usually very enduring.
Self-organisation is usually internal and can often be spontaneous. It can be inspired or triggered by outside events or stimuli but when a system begins self-organising it is generally not controlled from the outside anymore. If it was it wouldn’t be self-organising!
Whether or not a new practice (or even a new idea) becomes established as a pattern in a system such as a family (or, indeed, any group of people) depends on how it is enabled or facilitated within. If those within (usually people who are persuasive, energetic or people of influence) notice a characteristic in a member (or members) they may behave in a way that causes it more likely to happen again by drawing more attention to it, or less likely to happen again by ignoring it.
And remember, in a family the people of greatest influence might not always be the parents. For example, a child’s behaviour may reveal a characteristic that, perhaps, parents may have consciously tried to avoid.
The extent to which something is made more likely or less likely to happen again depends more on the internal reaction than on what an outside observer thinks to be advantageous. Reaction to the idea (or characteristic) among members increases the likelihood of a practice becoming established as a predictable feature, that is, a pattern.
(External factors will also of course have some influence on whether a new pattern becomes the norm – but they do not have the power of the internal influences).
Eventually the new pattern develops a quality of predictability (though not certainty) that was not there before.
A lot of organisations are life-less. They are like a nice shiny apple on the outside but decayed at the core, because growth from within is stymied – it is sad if growth can only take place if it’s ordered, or directed from outside.
In self-organisation, voluntary buy-in by members makes patterns of behaviour quite robust and enduring – and hard to change.