Anarchy vs. Democracy: What is Self-Organization

I was reading Macro Abis's BrainScrum and he has an article on Self-Organization. Some of his friends attended ScrumMaster Certification training and after the event the comment "I like the idea but I'm a control freak, I cannot leave he team in anarchy."

Macro's response to this is "I don't see self-organization as anarchy even if I agree that different situations ... need different degrees of independency."

Just to throw my two cents into this, Self-organizing groups of people are not anarchists. The most useful definition of anarchy in this context is "Absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose." Sounds like my last job ;)

On the other hand, a similar definition (again in this context) of democracy reads "The common people, considered as the primary source of political power." In other words, the common people organize themselves into a common political power. Self-organization, as it were.

So if you are scared of giving up control (personal problems aside), don't. As far as I can tell, at least politically, self-organization has worked out pretty well for me.