Multi-Roles in Holacracy: One Person, Many Roles

In Holacracy, having multiple roles is normal. Unlike traditional organizations where one person has one position, Holacracy distributes work across roles – and one person can fill any number of them. This multi-role reality brings both opportunities and challenges.

At SI Labs, most people have 3-7 roles. This article describes how we handle it.

The Multi-Role Reality

The separation between person and role is fundamental to Holacracy. A person is not their role – they fill roles.

Why Multi-Roles Make Sense

Flexibility: Work can flow to where capacity exists without changing job descriptions.

Leveraging Strengths: A person can use their various talents in different roles.

Organizational Efficiency: Not every role needs a full position. Small roles can be taken on by people with remaining capacity.

Learning: New roles enable development without promotion.

Typical Role Distribution

Organization Type	Average Roles per Person
Small organization (< 20)	5-8 roles
Medium organization (20-100)	3-5 roles
Large organization (> 100)	2-4 roles

Larger organizations tend to have more specialized roles, hence fewer per person.

Research Insight: Multi-role structures increase organizational flexibility but require clearer prioritization mechanisms. Without these, overload and conflicts emerge. [1]

How Many Roles Are Realistic?

The question isn’t just how many roles someone can have, but how many make sense.

Factors for the Right Number

Role Complexity

A complex role with many accountabilities “consumes” more capacity than a simple role.

Time Rhythm

Some roles require daily work, others only weekly or monthly.

Cognitive Load

Switching between roles costs energy. More roles mean more context switches.

Interdependencies

When roles often need to coordinate with each other, effort increases.

Warning Signs for Too Many Roles

• Projects don’t get completed
• Meetings are missed
• Quality drops
• Permanent feeling of overload
• Tensions are no longer brought up

Rule of Thumb

Most people can fill 3-6 roles well. Beyond that, quality starts suffering. But: A person with 4 complex roles can be more overloaded than one with 8 simple ones.

Prioritizing Roles

When not everything fits, prioritization is needed.

The Lead Link as Prioritization Authority

In every circle there’s a Lead Link. One of their accountabilities: Creating clarity when priorities between roles compete.

How it works:

1. You have roles in Circle A and Circle B
2. Both require your time
3. You ask the respective Lead Links for relative priority
4. You act accordingly

Important: The Lead Link gives priority hints, not work instructions. How you work within the role is your decision.

Self-Prioritization

Within a role, you prioritize yourself. For this you use:

• The purpose of the role
• The circle’s strategy
• The relative priority of different projects
• Your common sense

Prioritization Across Circles

When you have roles in different circles:

1. Ask Lead Links first: Which circle has higher priority right now?
2. Then prioritize within the role: Which projects are most urgent?
3. Communicate transparently: If something can’t happen, say so early.

Switching Role Hats

A practical technique for everyday work.

The Concept

In Holacracy, you “wear” different “hats” – the roles. When you act, you act from a role. Making this explicit helps.

Example:

“As [Role X] I want [Action Y].” “In my role as [Newsletter] I’m asking [Support] for the customer list.”

Why This Helps

Clarity: Others know from which authority you’re speaking.

Focus: You think from the role’s perspective, not from personal preference.

Boundaries: You notice when you’re acting outside your roles.

In Meetings

In Tactical and Governance meetings, the role-hat concept becomes explicit:

• “I’m bringing a tension as [Role X].”
• “As [Role Y] I have a question for [Role Z].”

This isn’t pedantry – it creates clarity about responsibilities.

Recognizing and Communicating Overload

Overload is a signal, not a failure.

Early Warning Signs

• You say “yes” to everything even though you know it won’t work
• Projects pile up without progress
• You avoid governance because you don’t have time for new responsibility
• You constantly feel behind

What to Do

Step 1: Take Inventory

List all your roles and their projects. How many hours per week do they realistically need?

Step 2: Identify the Gap

Compare the need with your available time. How big is the gap?

Step 3: Communicate

Bring the tension – in your circle’s Tactical meeting or directly to the Lead Link.

“I have X hours per week. My roles need Y hours. I need help with prioritization or need to give up roles.”

Solutions for Overload

Option	When Useful
Clarify priorities	When it’s unclear what’s more important
Give up role	When someone else can fill it better
Split role	When the role has become too big
More capacity	When all roles are really needed
Reduce accountabilities	When a role has grown too much

Tactical Meetings for Multi-Role Holders

Tactical meetings help with coordination.

How It Works

In Tactical, you bring tensions from each of your roles – one after another.

“As [Newsletter] I need the current numbers from [Analytics].” “As [Events] I need a decision on the budget.”

Tips for Multi-Roles

• Prepare for each role separately
• Note tensions by role
• Prioritize: Which tensions are most urgent?
• Use the meeting for coordination, not for work

What Tactical Doesn’t Solve

• Fundamental overload (that’s Governance or Lead Link)
• Structural problems (that’s Governance)
• Personal dissatisfaction (that’s a different conversation)

Multi-Roles at SI Labs

Our experiences:

What We’ve Learned

The right number is individual. Some people thrive with many small roles, others need few large ones.

Transparency is crucial. Everyone should know which roles they have and how much time they need.

Overload is not failure. It’s information that structure needs to be adjusted.

Typical Challenges

• People identify with roles and don’t want to give them up
• The line between “full capacity” and “overload” is fluid
• Some roles are invisibly time-intensive

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Research Methodology

This article is based on the Holacracy Constitution, research on work organization, and over ten years of experience with multi-role structures at SI Labs.

Source selection:

• Holacracy Constitution and official materials
• Studies on workload and prioritization
• Practitioner experiences from the Holacracy network

Limitations: The optimal number of roles varies greatly depending on context.

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Disclosure

SI Labs GmbH has practiced Holacracy for over ten years. Most team members have multiple roles.

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Sources

[1] Bernstein, Ethan, et al. “Beyond the Holacracy Hype: The Overwrought Claims and Actual Promise of the Next Generation of Self-Managed Teams.” Harvard Business Review 94, no. 7/8 (2016): 38-49. [HBR Practice Article | Multiple Case Studies | Citations: 312 | Quality: 72/100]

[2] Kirtley, Jacqueline, and Siobhan O’Mahony. “The myth of the flat start‐up.” Strategic Management Journal 44, no. 7 (2023): 1669-1702. DOI: 10.1002/smj.3333 [Empirical Study | 81 Start-ups | Citations: 81 | Quality: 78/100]