---
title: "Circles in Talkspirit"
description: "A circle in Talkspirit is a unit of your organisation in the Structure module. It holds roles, sub-circles and members, and carries its own purpose, domains and accountabilities."
category: structure-governance
section: chart-and-circles
tags: [permissions]
type: Reference
lastUpdated: 2026-08-31
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/circle-overview
---

# Circles in Talkspirit


## Circles in Talkspirit

> **The words on this page may not be the words on your screen.** Your organisation can rename most of them, and an administrator does it under **Administration → Terminology**. These are the renamable ones: circle, role, sub-circle, parent circle, main role, purpose, domain, accountability, policy, proposal and working agreement. This page always uses the defaults, so if your organisation renamed "circle" to "squad", your screen says squad everywhere this page says circle. See [Customise your organisation's terminology](/en/administration-security/customise-terminology).

A circle in Talkspirit is a unit of your organisation in the Structure module. It holds roles, sub-circles and members, and it carries its own purpose, domains and accountabilities. Circles are nested: every circle sits inside a parent circle, apart from the one at the top. A circle is also where governance happens, because roles are created and proposals are decided circle by circle.

## How is a circle different from a group?

Circles and groups are two different objects in two different apps, and neither creates the other.

- A **circle** lives in the Structure module. It appears in your organisation chart, it holds roles, and governance decisions are attached to it.
- A **group** lives in the Groups module. It is a space for conversation, posts and shared files.

Adding someone to a circle does not add them to any group, and a group has no purpose, domains or accountabilities. If you want somewhere to talk, you want a group. If you want to record who is accountable for what, you want a circle.

## What is on a circle page?

Every circle has the same four core fields, shown as sections of its **General** tab:

- **Purpose**: why the circle exists.
- **Domains**: what the circle controls and decides about.
- **Accountabilities**: the ongoing activities expected of it, listed one by one.
- **Policies**: the rules the circle has set inside its domains, added one by one.

These four exist in every organisation, and the set cannot be added to or removed. An administrator can give any of them a description, or hide one, from Structure settings > Governance fields. Renaming them is done under Administration > Terminology, not there.

Any **custom fields** your administrator has added appear as further sections on the same tab: text, dates, numbers, lists and calculated values. Two behaviours are worth knowing. A calculated field is read-only and says so. A governed field cannot be edited directly either: it shows "This field can only be edited via proposal" and offers **Propose changes** instead.

**Relations** closes the tab. It is derived from where the circle is referenced elsewhere, so it is read-only.

To the right of all this sits a **Map** you can expand, a small chart centred on this circle, and a **Composition** panel listing the circle's roles, who fills them, and its sub-circles.

![The General tab of a circle page, with sections for Purpose, Domains, Accountabilities and Policies, and a Composition panel on the right listing the circle's three roles and who fills them](/images/structure-governance/circle-overview/01-circle-general-tab.png)

## Which tabs does a circle have?

**General**, **Members**, **Working agreements** and **Attachments** are always there. **Metrics**, **Checklists**, **Projects**, **Goals** and **Meetings** appear depending on your organisation's settings, its add-ons, and what you have access to.

Attachments are held on the circle itself: files you upload, and links to documents that live elsewhere.

## Where do I see a circle?

A circle shows up in three places, and all three show the same content:

1. **The chart.** Structure > Explore organisation draws your organisation as nested circles and roles. The Circles & roles directory shows the same tree as a list.
2. **The circle page.** The full page with the tabs above, at an address you can share.
3. **The circle panel.** Clicking a circle's name anywhere in Talkspirit opens it as a side peek beside what you were doing, so you do not lose your place. From the panel you can switch to **Centre peek** or **Full page**.

![A circle open as a side peek panel on the right of the Goals list, showing the same Purpose, Accountabilities, Policies and Composition content as its full page](/images/structure-governance/circle-overview/02-circle-side-panel.png)

## Who is a member of a circle?

There are two ways to belong to a circle, and both make you a member of it:

- **You fill a role in the circle.** You are a member of the circle through that role.
- **You are added to the circle with no role.** The Members tab lists you with "No roles" in the Roles column.

Both are assignments, both appear in the Members tab, and both carry the same two flags described below. For governance, a member without a role is not a lesser member.

![A circle Members tab with two rows: one member whose Roles column reads No roles, and one filling the Product Manager role](/images/structure-governance/circle-overview/03-circle-members-tab.png)

When a circle is created, Talkspirit adds one role in it for each of your organisation's main-role templates, so a new circle is never completely empty. Those roles carry a **Core** chip beside their name in the Composition panel. It marks the same setting the role template calls **Main role**, and unlike most words on this page that chip cannot be renamed. It says nothing about who decides anything.

## What is a Decision maker?

**Decision maker** is a flag on each assignment, and it is on by default. You cannot choose it when you add someone to a circle, so everyone you add starts as a decision maker of that circle until someone removes it. That is the thing to understand about circle membership: this status is one you take away, not one you grant.

One exception is worth knowing. If you demote someone and later remove and re-add them, they come back demoted, because the removal is undone rather than replaced. Only a genuinely first assignment starts switched on.

In the interface, being a decision maker in a circle is what lets someone:

- add a role or a sub-circle inside it,
- raise a proposal in it,
- vote on its proposals.

Which circle the status has to be in is easy to get wrong. Everything above is about governance *inside* the circle. Changing the circle's own name, purpose or domains is different: that is decided by its **parent**, so **Propose changes** on a circle page asks for decision-maker status in the parent circle, not in the circle you are looking at. The circle at the top of the chart is its own parent here, which is why the same control reads **Edit** there and applies immediately instead of opening a proposal.

**Being an organisation administrator does not give you this.** An administrator with no assignment in a circle can read it, but the interface does not offer them Propose changes there, and the server refuses their proposal and their vote. Governance participation is per circle, and it comes from an assignment, never from an account-level right.

Reading it on screen works by exception: the Members tab shows nothing beside a decision maker, and shows **Non-Decision Maker** beside everyone else. That is why neither row in the Members tab above carries a marker. [Decision makers in a circle](/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle) covers what the status changes in practice and how to remove or restore it.

## Circle admin, decision maker, administrator: which is which?

Readers merge these three constantly. They are separate, and none of them implies another.

| | What it is | What it covers | How you get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Decision maker** | A flag on an assignment, on by default | Adding roles and sub-circles inside the circle, raising and voting on its proposals | Automatically, with a first assignment in the circle |
| **Circle admin** | A flag on an assignment, off by default | The circle's own settings and visibility, deleting the circle, and granting or removing Decision maker | By creating the circle, or by being appointed from Circle settings or the Members tab |
| **Organisation administrator** | An account-level right over the whole organisation | Administration, including Structure settings, terminology, custom fields and role templates | Another administrator grants it under Administration |

Two consequences worth stating plainly. A circle admin who is not a decision maker cannot add a role to their own circle. A decision maker who is not a circle admin cannot delete the circle, and cannot change who else is a decision maker.

## What's Next?

- [Adding a role or a circle](/structure-governance/how-to-add-a-role-or-a-circle)
- [Adding or removing a member without a role from a circle](/structure-governance/how-to-add-or-remove-a-member-without-a-role-from-a-circle)
- [Decision makers in a circle](/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle)
- [Circle Admins](/structure-governance/who-are-circle-admins)