What are Roles (Holacracy)?

A Holacracy role is a named bundle of purpose, domains, and accountabilities that any person in the organization can fill, separate from their job title. One person typically holds several roles at once, and roles are created, modified, or retired through governance meetings rather than HR approvals or org-chart redraws.

TL;DR

Three required parts: Every role has a purpose, one or more domains it controls, and a set of ongoing accountabilities, all written down in the governance record.
Roles outlive role-fillers: A role is a slot in the organization, not a person's identity, so the same individual can pick up or drop roles without changing teams or titles.
Governance, not management, edits roles: Role definitions change only through governance meetings using an integrative decision-making process, not through manager directives.
Multi-role load is the norm: At Zappos, employees averaged 7.4 roles each, which is the structural reason Holacracy demands explicit role tracking.

Definition: Roles in Holacracy are defined tasks, responsibilities, and authorities that individuals assume within a self-managing organizational structure. Each role represents a specific function or duty that contributes to the collective goals of the organization.

Why Holacracy separates roles from people

Roles in Holacracy are the structural building blocks of the organization, not labels attached to individuals. In a traditional org chart, "Marketing Manager" describes both a job and the person doing it, so any change in either forces a renegotiation.

Holacracy decouples the two. A role exists independently, carries its own purpose, domains, and accountabilities, and any person can be assigned to fill it, leave it, or hold it alongside several other roles.

This is what enables Holacracy's flexible and responsive operating model: when the work shifts, the roles shift, without anyone needing a new job title or contract.

Holacracy clearly differentiates the individuals from the roles they fill, and as this process begins, we are able to understand and honor each more fully, integrate the two more effectively, and directly help both person and role evolve.

― Brian Robertson, founder of Holacracy and author of Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World

The three components of a Holacracy role

Each role is defined by exactly three elements, captured in the organization's governance record:

Purpose: The reason the role exists, written as a short statement of the outcome it expresses on behalf of the organization.
Domains: Specific assets, processes, or areas where the role has exclusive control and can make autonomous decisions without consulting others.
Accountabilities: The ongoing activities the role-filler is expected to perform, phrased as verb-led commitments (for example, "Reviewing inbound applications within 48 hours").

These three together replace the open-ended job description. If a responsibility is not written into a role's accountabilities or domains, no one is formally responsible for it, which forces the organization to surface and resolve the gap in governance.

How role definitions actually change

In conventional organizations, a job description is rewritten by a manager and pushed down. In Holacracy, every role lives inside a circle, and any role-filler can propose a change at the circle's governance meeting using a structured process called integrative decision-making.

Proposals are tested for objections. If no valid objection surfaces, the change is adopted into the governance record immediately.

Roles therefore evolve in small, traceable increments tied to real tension, rather than in annual org redesigns.

Holacracy roles vs traditional job descriptions

The differences are concrete enough to put in a table:

Dimension	Traditional job description	Holacracy role
Owner of the definition	Manager or HR	Circle governance record
Coverage per person	One job, one title	Average of 7.4 roles per person at Zappos
Change mechanism	Annual review, manager rewrite	Governance meeting proposal, any role-filler can submit
Scope language	Mix of duties, behaviors, expectations	Purpose + domains + accountabilities only
Authority	Reports up the chain	Defined inside the role's domains
Lifespan	Tied to the person	Outlives any individual role-filler

The 7.4-roles figure comes from analysis of Zappos' Holacracy implementation and is the single best illustration of why Holacracy needs an explicit format: people simply hold too many concurrent roles to track informally (Hackmann, "A Company with No Job Titles," 2020).

What Holacracy roles solve in practice

Clear role definitions answer four questions that ambiguous job titles leave open:

Who decides what? Domains assign exclusive authority, so decision rights are unambiguous.
What is each person actually accountable for? Accountabilities are written, dated, and visible to the whole organization.
How does work get reassigned when someone leaves? Roles are detached from people, so a departure means redistributing roles, not rewriting jobs.
How does the organization respond to change? Governance meetings reshape roles in weeks, not in annual redesigns.

Role assignment inside a circle

Each role sits inside a circle, which is a self-governing unit with its own purpose, accountabilities, and a lead link who assigns roles to people. Assignment is based on fit, capacity, and the circle's needs, not on seniority or job grade.

One person can hold roles in multiple circles, and a single circle role can be split among multiple people if the workload demands it. This is how Holacracy aligns individual contribution with organizational goals without recreating a fixed hierarchy.

Where Holacracy role rollouts typically break

Role bloat. Teams create roles for every minor activity, ending up with dozens of one-accountability roles that no one can keep straight. Healthy circles consolidate.
Empty domains. Roles get written without specifying domains, which means decision rights remain implicit and the old manager-driven defaults reassert themselves.
Governance backlog. If governance meetings run rarely or get blocked, role definitions go stale and people fall back on informal habits.
Cultural fit gaps. Zappos saw 18% of its workforce leave after a 2015 ultimatum to adopt self-management, the clearest evidence that role-based self-management is not a uniform fit for every workforce (Slate, 2015).

These are operational failures, not design failures, but they are predictable enough that any rollout plan should address them upfront.

Using Holacracy roles in your operating model

If you are adopting Holacracy, treat the first 90 days as a role-mapping exercise rather than a culture change. List the work the organization is already doing, group it into roles with purpose, domains, and accountabilities, and assign role-fillers in a first governance meeting.

Track OKRs at the circle level so each role's accountabilities connect to measurable outcomes. The framework only delivers on its promises of clarity, autonomy, and adaptability once roles are written down, visible to everyone, and being actively edited through governance.

What is a role in Holacracy?

A role in Holacracy is a defined slot in the organization that combines a purpose, one or more domains of authority, and a set of ongoing accountabilities. One person typically holds several roles, and roles exist independently of the people filling them.

How many roles does a Holacracy employee typically hold?

At Zappos, the most-cited Holacracy implementation, employees averaged 7.4 roles per person. The exact count varies by organization size and circle structure, but holding multiple concurrent roles is the norm, not the exception.

What is the difference between a role and a job title?

A job title describes the person; a Holacracy role describes a slot in the organization. Job titles are owned by HR and rarely change. Holacracy roles are owned by the circle's governance record and can be edited at any governance meeting by any role-filler.

Who creates and changes Holacracy roles?

Any role-filler in a circle can propose creating, modifying, or removing a role at a governance meeting. The change is adopted if no valid objection is raised during the integrative decision-making process. Managers do not unilaterally rewrite roles.

What are the three required parts of a Holacracy role?

Purpose (why the role exists), domains (areas of exclusive control), and accountabilities (ongoing activities the role-filler performs). All three are recorded in the organization's governance record and visible to every member.

Can the same person hold roles in multiple circles?

Yes. Most Holacracy practitioners hold roles across several circles, since roles are tied to the work, not to the person. This is part of how Holacracy distributes capacity without creating new departments. See circles in Holacracy for how circle membership works.