--- title: "Running sociocracy in Talkspirit" description: "Talkspirit has no sociocracy mode. What it has is consent decisions, elected roles, representative roles and renameable vocabulary, and this is how to assemble them into a sociocratic practice." category: structure-governance section: methodologies tags: [admin] type: Tutorial lastUpdated: 2026-08-05 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/sociocracy-in-talkspirit --- # Running sociocracy in Talkspirit ## Running sociocracy in Talkspirit Talkspirit does not ship a sociocracy mode you switch on. Its governance engine is shaped by Holacracy: an organisation's methodology is set to Holacracy and, for almost every organisation, there is no control to change it. What Talkspirit does give you is the raw material sociocracy needs, and all of it is configurable: consent instead of a vote, elected roles, roles that represent one circle inside another, and the freedom to rename almost every word on screen. > **In summary:** do not look for a sociocracy setting. Set **Proposal adoption** to require proposals and adopt them when nobody objects, create your own role templates for the leader and delegate roles, turn on role elections, and rename Talkspirit's vocabulary to your own under **Administration** > **Terminology**. ## Is there a sociocracy setting? Not one you can reach. Talkspirit stores a governance methodology for the whole organisation, and it knows four of them, including Sociocracy 3.0. The screen that would let an administrator pick one is a **Methodology** tab in **Structure settings** > **General**, and it is hidden: it only appears for members enrolled in the beta programme, who then switch on **Methodology** under **Beta features** in their own account menu. If your account menu has no **Beta features** entry, the tab does not exist for you and your organisation is on Holacracy. That is not the setback it sounds like, for two reasons. The first is that Holacracy's decision process in Talkspirit is already a consent process. A proposal is adopted when nobody objects, not when a majority votes for it, and the objection test the product walks people through is the sociocratic one. The second is a genuine oddity worth knowing before you go hunting for the beta: the consent wording is tied to the Holacracy setting. On the Holacracy methodology, the two buttons on a proposal read **No objection** and **Object**, and **Object** opens a structured objection assessment. On any other methodology, including Sociocracy 3.0, the same two buttons read **Validate** and **Decline** and the assessment does not open. Switching the methodology to Sociocracy 3.0 therefore makes the interface look less sociocratic, not more. There is also no sociocracy view of the chart. The three views are **Circles & roles**, **Hierarchy** and **Network**. ![A submitted proposal's No objection and Object buttons behind the six-step Objection Assessment dialog that Object opens, showing step 1 of 6: does this proposal cause harm or move the circle backward?](/images/structure-governance/sociocracy-in-talkspirit/04-no-objection-object-buttons-objection-assessment.png) ## Set up consent decisions Consent lives in **Structure settings** > **General** > **Decision settings**, in the **Proposal adoption** card. 1. In the Structure side panel, click **Structure settings**, then open the **Decision settings** tab. 2. Turn on **Require proposals for governance changes**. The description under it changes to *Changes create proposals*. 3. Under **Proposals will be adopted**, choose **After N days, if no objections are raised** and set the window. Seven days is the default. 4. Click **Save**. ![The Decision settings tab of Structure settings, showing the Decision rules card with four switches above a Proposal adoption card where Require proposals for governance changes is on and adoption is set to after 7 days if no objections are raised](/images/structure-governance/sociocracy-in-talkspirit/01-decision-settings-proposal-adoption.png) With that in place, a governance change becomes a proposal, every decision maker of the circle is invited to consent, and the change is applied when the window closes with no objection standing. The alternative, **Immediately**, adopts on submission and is only useful while you are still drafting your structure. **Ignore the Decision rules card at the top of that tab.** Its four switches, **Consent-based decisions**, **Objection round**, **Asynchronous governance** and **Decision log**, are placeholders for a planned feature and are wired to nothing. Turning **Consent-based decisions** on changes no behaviour, and leaving it off does not stop the consent round: consent is controlled by the **Proposal adoption** card underneath, and objections work regardless. ## Circles Sociocracy's circles map onto Talkspirit's circles with nothing to configure. A circle holds roles, has its own purpose, domains, accountabilities and policies, and can contain sub-circles. [Circles in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/circle-overview) covers the anatomy, and [Adding a role or a circle](/structure-governance/how-to-add-a-role-or-a-circle) covers creating them. The one thing to decide early is who counts as a decision maker, because that, not membership, is what gives someone a voice in consent. Every new member of a circle is a decision maker until somebody removes the status. See [Decision makers in a circle](/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle). ## Double linking Talkspirit gives no ready-made leader or delegate role. There are no built-in core roles at all, so you create the ones your practice needs as **role templates**, named the way your organisation talks. Two checkboxes on a template exist for exactly this purpose: - **Represents parent circle**, for the role that carries the wider circle into this one. - **Represents sub-circle**, for the role that carries this circle into the wider one. Create one template with each box ticked, tick **Main role** so every new circle receives them, and tick **Electable** if the circle chooses who fills them. ![The Role templates tab of Structure settings, listing one template named Circle Lead in a table with Main, Electable, Assigner, Rep. parent and Rep. child columns](/images/structure-governance/sociocracy-in-talkspirit/02-role-templates-representation-columns.png) Be clear about what these two boxes do. They mark the role and show as **Rep. parent** and **Rep. child** in the templates table. They do not create a link between two circles on their own, they grant no rights, and nothing in the product breaks if the linked circle never fills them. The linking is your practice; the flags record it. For a horizontal link, where the same role takes part in two circles at once, use a cross-circle role instead. That mechanism is real and enforced: see [Cross-circle roles in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/cross-circle-roles-overview). Full instructions for building a template are in [Main roles and the Core badge](/structure-governance/understanding-core-roles). ## Elections Roles filled by the consent of the circle are supported directly. Organisation-wide, in **Structure settings** > **General** > **Circles settings**, the **Role elections** card carries **Roles can be elected**, which is on by default, an **Allow circles to override this setting** switch, and **Roles must be elected**, which forces every role in the organisation to be filled by election. ![The Circles settings tab of Structure settings showing a Role assignment card and a Role elections card, with Roles can be elected switched on](/images/structure-governance/sociocracy-in-talkspirit/03-role-elections-settings.png) Per circle, a circle's own settings hold an **Elected roles** picker listing which of that circle's roles are filled this way. Running the election itself is covered in [Holding an election for an elected role](/structure-governance/how-to-hold-an-election-for-an-elected-role). ## Use your own words Talkspirit's default vocabulary is Holacracy's. An administrator changes it for the whole organisation under **Administration** > **Terminology**, one value per language, up to 50 characters each. Circle, role, sub-circle, parent circle, main role, purpose, domain, accountability, policy, proposal and working agreement are all renameable, so an organisation that says "aim" rather than "purpose" can say so everywhere. Three words are handled differently: tension, checklist and election can only be renamed when the Holacracy add-on is active on your plan. Role names are not terminology. **Circle Lead** or **Facilitator** are just names you gave a role template, so you rename them by editing the template. ## Meetings Talkspirit has no built-in sociocracy meeting formats, and it does not need them. A meeting template is a list of **Sections** you define yourself, so you can build a governance meeting and an operations meeting that match your own agenda rather than an imported one. See [Creating a meeting template](/structure-governance/how-to-create-a-meeting-template). ## What's Next? - [Circles in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/circle-overview) - [Main roles and the Core badge](/structure-governance/understanding-core-roles) - [Cross-circle roles in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/cross-circle-roles-overview) - [Holding an election for an elected role](/structure-governance/how-to-hold-an-election-for-an-elected-role) - [Submitting and tracking a proposal](/structure-governance/how-to-submit-and-track-a-proposal) - [Creating a meeting template](/structure-governance/how-to-create-a-meeting-template)