Governance Modes
The governance mode decides who can change your org chart and how. Compare Free, Agile and Strict, and choose the one that fits your organization.
The governance mode of an organization decides who can change the org chart and how. It applies to the whole organization and shapes everyday actions: editing a role, adding or moving roles, and assigning members to roles.
Rolebase offers three modes: Free, Agile and Strict. You can switch between them at any time as your organization matures.
The governance mode drives both what you see and what the server allows. When an action is reserved by the mode, its button is hidden, and the same rule is enforced behind the scenes. The two always agree.
At a glance
| Action | Free | Agile | Strict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edit a role (purpose, domain, accountabilities, …) | Any member | The role’s lead | Through a proposal |
| Add, move or archive a role | Any member | The role’s lead | Through a proposal |
| Assign members to a role | Any member | The role’s lead | The role’s lead |
| Change the governance mode | Owner | Owner | Owner |
In every mode, the organization Owner can always edit everything directly. Think of the Owner as the administrator who keeps full control whatever the mode.
Free
Every member edits the whole org chart. Anyone can create, move, rename or archive roles, edit their content, and assign members anywhere.
Free is the most flexible mode and the best way to get started. It suits small teams and the early design phase, when you want to shape the structure together quickly and without ceremony.
Agile
Each role is run by its lead. The lead of a role edits that role, manages its sub-roles, and assigns members to it. The lead of a parent role manages the roles directly under it.
A role can be led in two ways:
- by its direct members, when the role has no representative, or
- by its representatives, the members of a parent-link sub-role that stands for the role in the org chart.
Agile keeps each part of the organization in the hands of the people accountable for it, while staying lightweight. It suits self-organizing teams that want clear ownership without a formal decision process.
Open the role and click the security icon (the small lock). It lists who can modify the role and who can assign its members, so it is always clear who is in charge.
Strict
Structure changes go through proposals. Creating, moving or archiving a role, and editing a role’s purpose, domain or accountabilities, all happen through the governance process and a decision, so the org chart stays stable and every change is traceable. This mirrors how Holacracy and similar frameworks work.
Assigning members to roles stays operational: the role’s lead can still add and remove members directly, so day-to-day staffing keeps moving while the structure itself is protected.
When you open a protected role, the security menu explains that the role is governed by strict mode and lets you create a proposal right away. It also lists the members who can assign people to the role.
Strict mode protects the structure, not the people in it. A role’s lead assigns and removes members at any time, even while structure changes wait for a decision.
Strict suits organizations that want formal, shared governance where authority over the structure is distributed and every change is decided together.
Changing the governance mode
Only the organization Owner changes the mode, from the organization settings. See Organizations for the full settings, and Proposals for how decisions are made in Agile and Strict.
Good to know
- The Owner keeps full edit rights in every mode, including Strict.
- Base roles (shared role templates such as Leader or Facilitator) are reserved for the Owner.
- A representative of a role can assign members within the role they lead and its sub-roles, even in Strict mode.
To understand how roles and the org chart fit together, read Roles and Org chart.