Roles

The Unified Model

In Holacracy or Sociocracy, the organizational structure is typically divided into two distinct concepts: circles (teams) and roles (individual responsibilities). In Rolebase, these two concepts are merged into one: the role.

A role can be a simple individual responsibility, or it can contain other roles. When it does, it acts as what traditional frameworks would call a “circle”. You can therefore use the terms “circle” and “role” interchangeably in Rolebase.

This unified approach gives you maximum flexibility: any role can become a circle at any time by adding sub-roles to it, without needing to convert or restructure anything.

Role Properties

Every role has the following properties:

Property	Description
Purpose	Why this role exists, its mission or reason for being
Domain	What this role has exclusive authority over
Accountabilities	Ongoing activities the role is expected to perform
Checklist	Recurring items to review (used in meetings)
Indicators	Metrics and key performance indicators to track
Notes	Free-form notes and documentation

These properties are the same whether the role is a simple individual role or a role acting as a circle (containing sub-roles).

Creating a Role

1. Navigate to the parent role where you want to create the new role.
2. Click the Add button and select Role.
3. Give it a name and optionally fill in the purpose, domain, and accountabilities.
4. The new role appears as a sub-role in the org chart.

A role that contains sub-roles is displayed as a circle in the org chart, while a leaf role (with no children) is displayed as a simple role.

Nesting: How Circles Emerge

Since a circle is just a role with sub-roles, the organizational hierarchy is built naturally by nesting roles:

Organization (top-level role)
├── Product (role with sub-roles = circle)
│   ├── Design (leaf role)
│   ├── Engineering (role with sub-roles = circle)
│   │   ├── Frontend (leaf role)
│   │   └── Backend (leaf role)
│   └── QA (leaf role)
├── Marketing (role with sub-roles = circle)
│   ├── Content (leaf role)
│   └── Social Media (leaf role)
└── Operations (leaf role)

Base Roles

Some roles are base roles, automatically assigned to all members of the parent role (circle). This is useful for shared responsibilities that every member should hold.

Role Generation with AI

Rolebase can generate role suggestions using AI. Based on the parent role’s purpose and context, the AI proposes sub-roles with pre-filled purpose, domain, and accountabilities. You can review and edit the suggestions before accepting them.

Members and Leaders

Members

Members are assigned to a role directly. When a role contains sub-roles (acts as a circle), a person who holds any sub-role is also considered a member of the parent role.

Leaders

A role leader (sometimes called a “Lead Link” in Holacracy) is a member with special authority over the role and its sub-roles. Leaders can:

• Assign members to sub-roles.
• Modify the role’s structure (when governance protection is enabled).
• Represent the role in its parent role.

Parent Links

A parent link connects a role to its parent, indicating who represents the sub-role’s interests in the broader context. This is a core concept in Holacratic governance. It ensures information flows between levels.

Role Links

Role links enable cross-functional collaboration between roles that are not in a direct parent-child relationship. By creating a link, a member of one role can participate in another role’s governance and operations.

This is useful for:

• Cross-team coordination.
• Shared services or platform teams.
• Temporary project groups that span multiple roles.

Privacy Settings

Roles can be marked as private. A private role and its contents (sub-roles, meetings, threads, tasks) are only visible to members of that role. This is useful for sensitive topics like HR or finance.

Next Steps

• Add members to your roles and assign them responsibilities.
• Run meetings within your roles.
• Create tasks and threads to coordinate work.