Concept
Pattern
Also: Behavioural pattern
A recurring way in which a system behaves — habits, routines, conventions — that agents follow without necessarily being aware of them.
Patterns are what makes a system partly predictable. In ordered systems they are stable and designed; in complex systems they emerge and shift; in chaos established patterns break down and agents no longer follow any coherent one. Much of working with complexity is noticing patterns early and deciding which to amplify and which to dampen.