Just as an analytical process helps people understand the elements of a system, the self-organizing dynamic builds understanding of the whole system. The results of a self-organizing process can seem magical because change happens by itself. For example, if taking basketball players outside their range works with players in general, then it could become an accepted technique to improve a person's shot. Trainers would then be hired to teach the technique and facilitators hired to make sure that people did the technique right. The miracle of self-organization would still be there, but our paradigm would frame it as though the miracle had been explained.
Many facilitators focus on techniques.
Brainstorming, visioning, the workshop method, Pareto's charts, or fishbone diagrams can elicit a self-organizing dynamic in specific situations. They can also be assembled into packages of techniques and directed toward a particular class of problems. A dynamic facilitator might also use these techniques or packages, but always to support the self-organizing dynamic. Rules or techniques become secondary. To illustrate the difference let me tell a story.