--- title: "Transforming a role into a circle, or a circle back into a role" description: "Extend a role into a circle from the role menu, in one step. Reducing a sub-circle back to a role is a proposal instead, and it deletes whatever you do not move out of the circle first." category: structure-governance section: chart-and-circles type: Tutorial lastUpdated: 2026-08-05 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/how-to-transform-a-role-into-a-circle-and-back --- # Transforming a role into a circle, or a circle back into a role ## Transforming a role into a circle, or a circle back into a role When the work a role carries outgrows one person, extend it into a circle. The role menu does it in one step and the change lands straight away. The return journey is not symmetrical: no circle menu offers a "reduce" entry, so turning a circle back into a role is a change you propose to the circle above it, and adopting that proposal deletes everything inside the circle you did not move out first. ## What you need **Extend role to a circle** appears in the role menu only when the interface treats you as able to take part in governance in the circle that holds the role, which in practice means being a decision maker there. Edit, Move role and Delete follow the same rule, so a viewer without that status sees a shorter menu. Reducing lives inside a proposal, and creating a proposal on a circle requires you to be a decision maker of that circle. ## Extend a role into a circle 1. Open the role page. 2. Click **More actions**, the three dots at the top right. 3. Select **Extend role to a circle**. ![The role page More actions menu, listing Copy URL, Add member, Add stakeholder, Edit, Mark as hiring, Move role, Extend role to a circle, and Delete in red](/images/structure-governance/how-to-transform-a-role-into-a-circle-and-back/01-role-menu-extend-role-to-a-circle.png) 4. Write a message describing the decision if you want one recorded on the change. It is optional. 5. Click **Validate**. ![The Extend role to a circle dialog, explaining that the role will be transformed into a circle, with an optional Message field and the Cancel and Validate buttons](/images/structure-governance/how-to-transform-a-role-into-a-circle-and-back/02-extend-role-to-a-circle-dialog.png) The role becomes a circle where it stood, and you land on the new circle's page. There is no proposal, no vote and no step after this dialog, even in an organisation where every other structural change goes through the proposal workflow. **Copy the purpose, domains and accountabilities somewhere first.** Those three fields do not survive the transformation: the new circle starts with them empty and you have to type them back in. Everything else moves across in place, including the name, the position in the chart, the people assigned and their decision maker and circle admin status, the working agreements and other documents, the custom fields and any tension pointing at the role. The new circle also starts without your organisation's core roles. A circle created through a proposal receives them automatically, this one does not, so add them yourself if your organisation uses them. ## Extend a role from a proposal instead Where the change should be reviewed rather than applied on the spot, propose it. On a draft proposal, click **Add evolution** and choose **Extend a role to a circle**, under **Change existing**. The picker offers the roles sitting directly in the proposal's circle, and the change applies when the proposal is adopted. > **Note:** The optional step offering to move roles into the new circle names them on the proposal but does not move them. For the roles that should end up inside the new circle, add a [Restructure a sub-circle](/structure-governance/how-to-restructure-a-circle-in-governance-meetings) evolution as well. ## Reduce a circle back into a role This one is only an evolution on a proposal, and the proposal has to sit on the **parent** circle: the picker offers the direct sub-circles of the circle the proposal is on, and nothing deeper. 1. Open a draft proposal on the circle that contains the sub-circle, or create one. 2. Click **Add evolution**, then **Reduce a sub-circle to a role**, under **Change existing**. 3. Choose the sub-circle from **Select the circle to reduce to a role**. 4. A checklist of that sub-circle's roles appears. Tick every role that has to survive: those move up into the parent circle, and the rest go down with the sub-circle. ![The Reduce to role card on a draft proposal, with a sub-circle chosen in the Select the circle to reduce to a role list and its child roles offered as tick boxes above Cancel and Confirm](/images/structure-governance/how-to-transform-a-role-into-a-circle-and-back/03-reduce-sub-circle-to-a-role-form.png) 5. Click **Confirm**, then submit the proposal and adopt it. Nothing changes in the chart until the proposal is adopted, so a draft you abandon costs nothing. ### What reducing destroys The change is a deletion followed by a creation, not a conversion. Read this before you confirm: - The sub-circle and **everything below it** goes: its own sub-circles, everything inside those, and every role you left unticked. - Everyone assigned to what was deleted is unassigned, with an exit recorded on their history. - Roles invited from another circle cannot be moved out. They are absent from the tick list and they go with the circle. - The role that replaces the circle is brand new and empty. It keeps the name and nothing else. - Documents on what was deleted are archived rather than destroyed, and future scheduled meetings of the circle are cancelled, including in members' external calendars. - Projects, goals and metrics that named the circle are neither deleted nor reassigned. They keep pointing at something that has left the chart. There is no undo in the interface. Rebuilding a circle you reduced by mistake means creating it again by hand. ## What's Next? - [Restructuring a sub-circle in a governance meeting](/structure-governance/how-to-restructure-a-circle-in-governance-meetings) - [Deleting a role or a circle](/structure-governance/how-to-delete-a-role-or-a-circle) - [Creating a proposal](/structure-governance/how-to-create-a-proposal) - [Governance Meetings Overview](/structure-governance/introducing-governance-meetings)