Domain

A domain, in holacracy and other forms of role-based management, is the scope of action and decision that belongs exclusively to one role. It can be an asset, a process or a type of decision. The role decides alone on everything inside its domain. Anyone else asks that role before acting within it.

A Website role, for example, may hold the company website as its domain. The person in that role changes pages without asking anyone, while a salesperson who wants to reword the pricing page asks the Website role first.

Once authority is spread across many roles and each domain is written down, people know who decides each question before it comes up. The person in a role knows what they can settle without consulting anyone. Everyone else knows whom to ask. People then coordinate across roles directly instead of escalating every choice to a manager.

Domains vary in size with the organization and its activity, from a shared calendar to the whole product. Write them down explicitly when you define each role, next to its purpose and accountabilities. Two roles that claim the same domain end up in conflict. Nobody knows who decides on a domain that no role holds.