Removing a user who owns an initiative

Last updated: August 11, 2026

An initiative must always have an accountable owner. So a user who still owns or edits one cannot be archived or deleted until that role is handed over.

This is the most common reason an otherwise routine offboarding gets blocked.

What you'll see

Attempt to archive or delete the user and the action stops. Rather than a generic failure, you're shown which initiatives are standing in the way — each named, each linked to its settings so you can go straight there.

The user is left completely untouched. They stay active, they stay in your organization, and nothing about their account changes.

Clearing the block

For each initiative named:

Follow the link to its settings
Assign the role to someone else — see Initiative roles and permissions
Return to the user and retry

Once no initiative depends on them, archiving or deleting proceeds normally.

Who can reassign

Assigning an owner needs Organization Admin or Initiative Owner permission. If you're an organization admin you can do this yourself for any initiative.

Planning offboarding

If you know someone is leaving, check what they own before their last day rather than at the point of archiving them. An initiative whose owner has already gone is harder to hand over cleanly, because the person who knew the program is no longer there to say who should take it.