One of the first and essential things to understand about rule-based self-organizing is the distinction between people and the roles they fill; sometimes referred to as the Role/Soul and Organisation/People distinction. 

Chris Cowan from HolacracyOne introduces this distinction as it's understood in Holacracy in this clip below from 7 mins 21 secs > 12 mins 20 secs. The same principle can be useful and applicable whether you are adopting or adapting Holacracy.