Building your org structure: roles, circles & governance roles

Nestr structures your organisation around purpose using roles and circles rather than traditional job titles and departments. Each role has a clear purpose, accountabilities, and domains. Circles are self-governing teams that contain roles and can nest within each other.

This guide walks you through building and managing your organisational structure step by step.

Creating a role

There are two ways to create a role:

From the circle's Structure tab

1. Navigate to the circle where the role should live.
2. Click the Structure tab, then select About.
3. Click Add role.
4. In the dialog that appears:
   • Enter a role name.
   • Optionally select a parent circle (defaults to the current circle).
   • Optionally provide accountabilities the role is responsible for
   • Optionally provide domains the role controls (as a general rule it is advisable to be conservative with adding domains)
   • Optionally assign users to the role immediately.
5. Click Create role.

From the sidebar

1. Click the + Create button in the left sidebar.
2. Select Create role.
3. Fill in the same dialog fields and click Create role.

Note: In workspaces with governance enabled, non-admin users may see Create proposal instead of Create role. This routes the role creation through the governance consent process so circle members can review it.

Creating a sub-circle

Circles are teams within your organisation that contain their own roles. To create a sub-circle:

1. Navigate to the parent circle.
2. Click the Structure tab, then About.
3. Click Add sub-circle.
4. In the dialog:
   • Enter a circle name.
   • Choose the parent circle.
   • Add accountabilities — click "Add an accountability" for each one.
   • Add domains — click "Add a domain" for each one.
   • Optionally assign users.
5. Click Create circle.

When a new circle is created, Nestr automatically adds the roles marked as core roles in Workspace settings → Applications → Default circle roles. Out of the box that is four governance roles:

• Circle lead — has circle admin rights
• Facilitator — runs meetings (electable)
• Secretary — manages governance records, has circle admin rights (electable)
• Rep link — represents the circle in its parent circle (electable)

"Circle admin rights" is a configurable field on every role, not a fixed property of the four core roles. You can set it to any of the built-in shortcuts (Normal member, Circle admin, Role assigner, Circle plus sub-circles admin) or to any custom permission profile defined in your workspace. Whoever fills the role inherits the chosen rights inside the role’s circle and loses them again on unassignment. See Rights management.

Assigning people to roles

1. Navigate to the circle containing the role.
2. Click the Structure tab, then Roles.
3. Find the role in the list and click it to open the detail panel.
4. In the user section at the top, click to add or manage assignments.

You can also hover over any user's avatar in the role fillers widget on the left side of the Roles tab.

Adding a focus area

When several people fill the same role, you can record what each of them concentrates on. This is called a focus area, and every role filler has their own.

• In the Role filler(s) dialog, each assigned person has an Add focus area field under their name. Type the focus area and click Save.
• On the role itself, the filler pill shows the person’s first name together with their focus area. Click the pill to edit it or re-assign the role.

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Focus areas show up wherever the role does: in the tooltips when assigning work to a role, and under each role on a member’s profile and in their My roles view.

Focus areas are also brought across when you import from Glassfrog, Holaspirit or Peerdom.

Removing someone from a role

1. Navigate to the role via Structure → Roles.
2. Click the role to open the detail panel.
3. Click the assigned user's avatar or name.
4. Click the Unassign to remove them from the role

Alternatively you can also click the User icon in the top right and click the X in the pop-up and save to remove the user from the role.

Moving a role to another circle

To move a role from one circle to another, you can change the role's parent circle. If you have admin rights, you can:

1. Click the ... in the right top of the role
2. Click the 'Move item' option
3. Search for and select the circle you wish to move the role to.

More appropriate is to use proposals so that all circle members can consent to the proposed move. through proposals you can only move a role up or down in the circle hierarchy one step at a time. To do this:

1. If you want to move the role into a sub-circle, click the edit button (pencil icon in the top right) on the sub-circle you wish to move the circle into.
2. This opens a proposal to edit the circle.
3. At the bottom of the proposal, open the advanced settings and toggle 'Restructure circle'
4. Select the roles and policies you wish to move in/out of the circle.

Core governance roles

The four roles above are role templates that every new circle receives. They are defaults, not fixtures: an admin can edit them, switch any of them off, or add templates of your own, under Workspace settings → Applications → Default circle roles. See Role templates and core roles.

To assign someone to a core governance role, navigate to the circle's Structure → About tab where these roles are listed, and assign users just like any other role.

Domains and policies

Each role and circle can have domains (areas of exclusive control) and policies (rules granting or restricting access to domains):

1. Navigate to the circle.
2. Click Structure → Domains & Policies.
3. Add domains or policies as needed.

In governed workspaces, changes to domains and policies go through the governance proposal process.

Circle membership

In Nestr, circle membership is determined by role assignment. When someone is assigned to any role within a circle, they automatically become a member of that circle. There is no separate "add member" action — membership flows from role assignment.

This means everyone in a circle has a clear reason for being there: they fill at least one role that contributes to the circle's purpose.