There is some confusion around Catalyst Organizations and EPIC Folders.
Let’s fix that!
One Thing to Keep in Mind: Organizations and folders have absolutely nothing to do with one another. They are completely unrelated.
The Purpose of Folders & Subfolders
Folders and subfolders are purely for the convenience of the EPIC Administrator. The search screen is used widely in EPIC: editing records, resending logins, generating a Pending Report, adding records to a group report, etc. A good folder and subfolder system helps the admin to easily find the records needed, all at once.
For example, suppose we wanted to create a Group Culture Report for the Western Marketing team. And let’s say we have organized our records with the folders representing regions (Western, Central, Eastern) with a subfolder for each department (Sales, Marketing, Operations, etc.). When we get to the “Add Records” part, we just select the “Western” folder and the “Marketing” subfolder. Clicking “Search” brings up all the records we need and we click the “Select All” button to add them all to the group report. Without this good folder structure, we would have to locate each record by the person’s name or email address and add them individually. That’s time-consuming and error-prone.
So, What are Catalyst Organizations?
Organizations are what determine who can see who on Catalyst. Again, the folder and subfolder have nothing to do with Catalyst, so it doesn’t matter which folder or subfolder they are in. In fact, it doesn’t even matter if the record is in your account!
Let that sink in for a second.
Any record can be assigned to any organization. In fact, we sometimes add ourselves to one of our client organzations for a workshop. The facilitator is added to the organization we are training–just for the class. When the workshop is over, we’ll move the facilitator back into our company.
Changing someone’s organization is as simple as editing their record, updating the “Organization” field and saving the record. The next time that person logs into Catalyst, they will see the everyone else in that organization.
Creative Uses of Catalyst Organizations
Multiple, Smaller Organizations vs. One, Big Organization
Unless there is some reason to separate people, most companies use just one organization for everyone. The exception to this is companies that have different locations that are completely independent. No one in location “A” knows anyone in location “B”, so they don’t need to be able to see people from the other location. Any fast food outlet would fall into this category.
The staff of the location on Main Street won’t gain anything by being able to compare styles with the workers at the Broad Street location. Should someone move from one location to the other, you can change their assigned organization to the new location.
Using a Temporary Location for Workshops
We sometimes create an organization for a specific training session and put the learners in that organization for the purposes of the class. Once the class is over, we move them into the main organization with everyone else.
It’s not necessary to do that, but it helps streamline the activities that use the “Colleagues” and “Groups” sections of Catalyst.
Learn More About Catalyst
For more information, sign up for a personal tour of Catalyst. Or to get started now, you can purchase a set of Catalyst assessments right here on disc training hub. We’ll have you up and running in no time.