The process of adding a role, nominating candidates and selecting a rolekeeper are sufficiently clear in a lot of the sociocracy discussion, but I don’t see much about removing a rolekeeper from a role or removing a role. There is a section in Many Voices One Song about removing circles, but not so much on roles. I imagine that it would be consent-based but that it was initiated by the circle, that role keeper would not be part of the consent round. The rationale for removal from a role would need to be clear and discussed.
It seems that something like this should be in the Governance Agreement, just as nomination would be, and that in an employment situation would have to refer to HR policies, which may be outside the governance agreement.
I think you’re right.
If not defined in the governance agreement, one would have to extrapolate from other processes, as you say.
For completeness, I’m mentioning the most common ones first.
The easiest way is to wait until their term it up.
The other way is to talk to them so they might step down on their own terms.
If none of that works, I’d say it would follow exactly the process of removing someone from a circle, just that they’d not be removed from the circle, just the role (unless it’s their reason to be in the circle).
Another route is to withdraw consent on them being in the role. That’s super disruptive but possible. We don’t emphasize it because it’s super hard to even talk about. It opens the door for undoing any decision. But it’s an option.
It would be interesting to discuss the difference between the last two options. Touches on the question of who decides what the proposal on the table is. (“Do we remove” vs. “do you stay in the role”). Very interesting discussion as I’m sure you’d agree.