I’ve witnessed the following organizational benefits studying self-organizing groups. To individuals (including me), these benefits sound too good to be true—especially all stacked together like this in a list. To self-organizing groups, though, they will feel familiar. Even if I’ve used slightly different words and language than you use in your environment, as a self-organizing group member, you can recognize these experiences as your own.
You can expect amazing things from these groups, but what those things actually are, you can’t entirely know ahead of time. Think about a self-organizing group that you’ve seen somewhere: like several jazz musicians or rappers spontaneously improvising amazing music in the moment or a flash mob of people somewhat spontaneously performing a Michael Jackson or Lady Gaga song in a city park. You can expect to be surprised and wowed. Or you can expect nothing and still be surprised and wowed.
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