--- title: "Decision makers in a circle" description: "A decision maker is a circle member who can create roles, sub-circles and proposals in that circle. Everyone assigned to a circle is one by default" category: structure-governance section: chart-and-circles tags: [permissions] type: Tutorial lastUpdated: 2026-08-26 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle --- # Decision makers in a circle ## Decision makers in a circle A decision maker is a member of a circle who can change how that circle is organised: creating roles and sub-circles inside it, editing and deleting the roles it holds, adding policies, and creating and voting on proposals. Everyone assigned to a circle becomes a decision maker of it immediately. It is a status you take away from the few people who should not govern the circle, not one you hand out. > **In summary:** decision maker is the governance permission inside a circle, and it comes with every assignment. Remove it from the circle's **Members** tab with **Set as Non-Decision Maker**. ## What a decision maker can do In the interface, being a decision maker of a circle gives you: - **Add role** and **Add sub-circle** on the circle's page. - Edit and delete the roles listed inside the circle, and add a policy to it. - Create proposals for the circle, and vote on them. You get the status from any active assignment in the circle, and an assignment you hold through a role counts. So filling a role inside a circle makes you a decision maker of that circle even if nobody added you to the circle directly. Two things sit outside this. Moving or deleting a circle, and proposing changes to the circle's own purpose, domains or accountabilities, count as governing the circle *itself*, so they need the status in its **parent circle** instead. On the top circle of your organisation, that circle counts as its own parent. ## What a non-decision maker can still do Taking the status away removes governance authority and nothing else. A non-decision maker keeps their roles and their work, and can still: - Raise tensions and bring them to a meeting. - Attend the circle's meetings, write the notes, and be the meeting's note taker. - Work on the circle's projects, checklists, metrics and Goals. > **Note:** decision-maker status has no effect in the Meetings module. Nothing about attending, running, or writing up a meeting depends on it. ## How to remove or restore the status You need to be able to manage the circle's settings, which in practice means an organisation administrator or a **Circle Admin** of that circle. 1. Open the circle and select the **Members** tab. 2. Click the three dots at the end of the member's row. 3. Select **Set as Non-Decision Maker**. ![Members tab of a circle, with a member's three-dot menu open. Set as Non-Decision Maker is outlined, above Remove from circle and below Copy URL and Downgrade to member.](/images/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle/01-set-as-non-decision-maker.png) The member's row then reads **Non-Decision Maker** next to their name. Decision makers carry no badge, so an unmarked row means the person can govern the circle. ![The same Members tab after the change. One member's row now shows a Circle Admin badge and the words Non-Decision Maker; the other member's row carries no marking.](/images/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle/02-non-decision-maker-label.png) To give the status back, open the same menu and select **Set as Decision Maker**. Three details worth knowing before you start: - The menu lives on a **circle's** Members tab. A role's Members tab does not offer it. - A member appears as one row even when they hold several roles in the circle, so the change applies to every assignment they hold there. - The menu currently offers **Set as Non-Decision Maker** to a slightly wider group than the one that can complete it. If you hold a role that manages the circle's assignments, or your organisation lets all members assign, the item appears and the change is then refused. Only administrators and the circle's own **Circle Admins** can carry it through. ## Decision maker, circle admin, administrator Readers often merge these three. They are separate, and none of them implies another. | Status | What it covers | Where it is set | |---|---|---| | **Decision Maker** | Governance inside one circle: roles, sub-circles, policies, proposals, votes | The circle's **Members** tab only. On by default | | **Circle Admin** | The circle's own settings: privacy, decision mode, who may assign members | The circle's **Members** tab, or the **Circle Admins** list on the circle's settings page. Off by default | | **Administrator** | The whole organisation, including Structure settings and role templates | Administration | Being an organisation administrator does not make you a decision maker. In the interface, an administrator with no decision-maker assignment in a circle sees no **Add role** or **Propose changes** control there, and creating a proposal or casting a vote in that circle is refused outright. Being a **Circle Admin** does not grant it either: a circle admin can hand the status out, including to themselves, but does not hold it by virtue of the badge. If you have used Talkspirit's governance features for a while, you may know this status as **decision maker**. The same setting used to carry two labels: "decision maker" when the Holacracy add-on was switched on, and "decision maker" when it was off. There is now one name, **Decision Maker**, whether or not your organisation uses Holacracy. Unlike circle, role and proposal, it is not a term an administrator can rename, so it reads the same in every organisation. ## What's Next? - [Circle Admins](../structure-governance/who-are-circle-admins) - [Assigning or removing a member from a role](../structure-governance/how-to-assign-or-remove-a-member-from-a-role) - [Circles in Talkspirit](../structure-governance/circle-overview) - [Decision Settings](../structure-governance/what-are-decision-settings)