There are many variables in play that determine the form of structure and order, and involved in the 'decision' or settling of which structural mechanisms are to be involved and how order can be 'constructed' or understood, which may influence choices and decision making, and change itself. Some are internal to the decision maker's situation, others are contingent:

Internal variables

• The type and degree of homogeneity in action logics / worldviews of a decision group (Graves/Cook-Greuter).
• The types of cognitive preferences of a decision group and their degree of homogeneity (Jung/MBTI). 

Catalysts or 'retarders'

• The degree of empowerment of a change maker or a team and its capacity to assess a situation. (Hackman)
• The degree of autonomy of a change maker or a team in self-designing and recomposing structure. (Hackman)
• The resources available.
• The tools and methodologies available for making sense of situations and generating mutual understanding for 'co-constructing' required elements of structure.

External variables:

• The degree of complexity and predictability of situations (Snowden/Cynefin).
• The requirements and effects of time and accumulation on the process and the organizational life cycles.
• The scale of an activity and its level of intervention.
• The Interdependencies/trade-offs that may need to be negotiated
• The relational dynamics and power relations

For example open infinite games or conversations can begin structureless and then activities or discourses structures themselves on their own contingencies as conversations progress and projects crystallize, in more or less 'liquid' ways, with 'shape' being a function of what arises, in relation to what the other variables allow.

In the case of cities for example, patterns are composed and recomposed, generating and regenerating a scaffold as they grow, optimized with models such as Alexander's pattern language, which can explain why organizations die (they don't know how to recompose and recombine), but Cities don't as they know how to permanently renew themselves.