And after I got over my initial shock, I realized he was right. 

Millenials are growing up fluent in a new structure.  This isn't about knowing how to use an iPhone.  It is about understanding how the new structure works.  Though most of us tend to work digitally, it is a learned skill. We didn't grow up with the technology. As evidenced by the fact that 1980's photo albums don't offer the benefit of perfect crops, airbrushed skin and whitened teeth. We had to pay a photographer for that and there was usually a set of folded hands and a floating head involved.  If you are Millennial don't worry about it. Is a Boomer/GenX reference. 

If you don't believe the world has changed for you, here's an example: coordination has replaced planning.

Remember when you went to the theme park when you were a kid and your group split into those who loved roller coasters and those who were terrified of them?  There was always a plan to reconnect.  Meet by the (entrance, roller coaster, food court, etc.) at 3:00.  But what happens now?  Now, we don't make a plan because we have cell phones.  We can find each other anytime simply by calling.  Places and times to meet can be determined on-the-fly based on changing circumstances. For example, if you plan to have dinner with friends, then arrive at the restaurant to find there is a two hour wait, you can check Yelp! to find a desirable alternative nearby then call your friends while still in their car and avoid the wait.

The reason Millenials understand more about the way the world works is that they are growing up in this condition.  They are coming of age in a world where coordination replaces planning. 

Here's another major change:  size/cash aren't needed to be successful.

Have you considered what it means that small, one-person shops like on Etsy, Amazon or E-Bay can function in the same way that the mass-retailers do? With virtually no start up cash, you can launch a business with simply an idea.  You don't have to wait for someone to approve it and finance it.  Writers once had to wait for a publisher to get their message into the public.  Now a blogger can pull as many readers as a New York Times columnist.  This empowerment to be able to access audiences, resources and knowlege without the benefit of size and cash changes the game for what it requires to be successful. What does it mean for people growing up in a world where they can think up an invention, have it rapid-prototyped in China, and sell via a digital storefront carrying virtually no inventory? What types of skills are needed to be successful in this model? (Hint: it isn't size or cash.)

If Millenials are growing up under the new structure, then Rex Miller's statement makes sense.  However what happens when old leadership models encounter a huge percentage of people who have grown up under the new rules?

Thomas Friedman in his book, The World is Flat, talks about "command and control" models being replaced by "connect and collaborate" models.  What does it mean for an organization to not have to lay out a hierarchy and assign tasks? If Millenials are growing up in a world where groups can self-organize based on interest and roles are picked up based on interest and ability rather than assigning them, wouldn't leadership for that model look different than it does today? 

Predicting the future is always dangerous, but my theory is that there is a perfect storm coming in 2018 when the demographics in our congregations and work forces shift.  Leadership models are going to have to begin morphing now or they will simply crumble and be replaced because they will no longer work.  For church leaders to remain effective, there are a number of skills to begin developing now. 

1. Learn to articulate "compelling dreams".  I once heard Michael Lagocki say, "Compelling dreams beat burning platforms." The idea is that you can tell people that the dock they are standing on is burning and that that they need to jump, or you can paint a picture of something they would leave their dock for whether it was burning or not. Learning to articulate that "compelling dream" is one of the most valuable skills a leader could develop in a world of "connect and collaborate." Those who can paint the picture of what could be will draw others to them who want to bring about that shared vision. While most charismatic leaders are able to cast vision, it takes skill and discipline to not focus on telling people how to get there but to continue to articulate on where they want to be. Antoine de Saint-Exupery said it well, "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

2. Become a good facilitator.  The commander-in-chief role will be replaced by people who can resource and connect others. The better you are at making it easy for people to reach their own objectives and dreams and connect with others who share those dreams, the closer you move to the center of the hub.  Organization charts have traditionally been drawn from the top down.  In the new models, they will be drawn from the center of the action outward in all directions.

Though there are different flavors of social networking platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) most work the same way:

1.  You create a profile page with a photo of yourself and some basic information.

2. You "friend" "connect" or "follow" people that you know by inviting them or accepting their invitation.

3. You post content by typing in a status update in the box on your home page, uploading photos, or commenting on other people's posts.

4. There is a news feed on the home page of all of your "friends" "connections" or people you are following's activity.

One of the reasons social networking is so powerful both professionally and personally is that it creates a structure for connecting people, ideas, and events in a way that wouldn't happen in the physical world.

For example...you probably have a number of different social circles.  Family, friends, co-workers, classmates, church, a hobby group, sports team, book club, etc.  Each of those people know a small portion of who you are--and chances are (unless they are your co-workers)--they have no idea what you do professionally.

By posting information about what you do and participate in--you begin to open a window to that world and people who are interested can connect.

For example, one of my connections is a writer who frequently posts what topics she is writing on.  When I know someone with that expertise, I connect them with her.  My friend gets publicity and she gets a source and makes her deadline. The thing is that everyone in her network does this making it very valuable for her.

The bubble tea shop in my neighborhood has a page on Facebook. (I discovered this because someone in my network became a fan and it showed up in my news feed). I frequently stop in when the "tea of the day" is something I've always wanted to try and have attended events they've announced that sounded interesting to me. (Their business is doing very well because I'm not the only one who does this.)

Just yesterday, I posted that I was learning about "augmented reality" (AR) and my daughter's best friend's mom, told me about Esquire magazine this month being an AR issue and I was able to share the link she sent with the rest of my team which helped us with our presentation.

If you are a massage therapist, artist, yoga instructor, or have a band and frequently participate in events or workshops, you can post that information and invite people or simply talk about it in your status.  (You can also post photos after the event and write a recap on it to make people wish they had.)

If you are a business with a physical location, as people in your network "become a fan" or "friend" your business other people in their network who are geographically close can discover you too.  You can also be proactive in this on Twitter and deliberately follow people who are in your geographic location.  To search by geographic location, you simply go to search.twitter.com and narrow the feed to a zipcode.

Social networking takes a bit of time investment to do right.  If you are new to social networking, you can begin by committing an hour once a week, then move to checking it daily.  If you are currently using social networking personally, consider letting the lines blur between the personal and professional so that you begin to create interest in your professional world.

Of course, the best part of social networking is that it is the most affordable--and potentially effective--advertising you could possibly do. And as a small business owner--who doesn't love free!

If you are using multiple media outlets to create an online presence for your company--or even if you are just maintaining your own personal lifestream--Posterous makes it easy to get content where you want it.

One of the things about social media is that each platform does its own thing well. Flickr and Picasa are designed around sharing photos. Twitter is structured for SMS posts (140 characters or less). YouTube and Vimeo are for video. And the list goes on... And while it is wonderful to have all of these services that host our content so well, most of us who live and breathe social media find ourselves managing multiple accounts. But what if we didn't have to? What if a single service brought all of the elements all together?

Posterous started out as a simple blogging platform that has now become a vehicle for posting to everywhere simply. In fact it is so simple that you don't even have to sign up for an account. You can simply send an e-mail with the content you want posted to post@posterous.com and voila! your posterous stream has begun. (Of course, you will likely want to claim your account to give ownership to the content posted so you can manage it.) The ease of Posterous is that it works via e-mail. You send text alone or attach photos (jpg, png, gif), video (avi or mpg), mp3's or documents (doc, pdf, ppt) to your e-mail and they are posted in real time.

How to use Posterous

Say, for example, say you want to post a simple blog post with an image. In your e-mail, make the subject your title line. Make the blog post your e-mail text. And attach the photo you want posted with your content. You can even tag your post by adding ((tag: tag1, tag2)) to the subject line. That's a double parenthesis, the word 'tag' with a semicolon, then the tags you actually want to use and close double parenthesis. Once you hit "send" a few seconds later the content is formatted and goes live. You will want to delete your e-mail signature or type #end after the text you want posted.

What makes Posterous different from Blogger or Wordpress--who also let you post content via e-mail--is that Posterous will not only post the content to your Posterous page, but also to every other account you have linked to it...Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, etc. Making it very easy to manage all your social media sites through a single outlet. Of course, you won't always want to post the same things to all of your accounts, so Posterous has an option for that. To post everywhere, you would send to post@posterous.com. To post only to twitter, send your e-mail to twitter@posterous.com. Flickr? flickr@posterous.com. Your blog? blog@posterous.com. You can even combine them: facebook+blog@posterous.com.

Smart Posting of Content

One of my favorite features is that Posterous is "smart" when posting your content. Content over 140 characters sent to Twitter is shortened as a link. MP3's that are posted (simply by sending as an attachment with your e-mail) are put into a player so that the post shows up as an easy to press "play" button. Photos are resized to be web friendly, and video is transcoded to a flash player that shows in your browser. (They host the file so there is no work to do.) URL's are posted as a link, but if you send a YouTube link, Posterous automatically embeds the player.

When you post multiple photos via email, Posterous automatically creates a gallery of those images. If, you’d like all your images to appear inline in the same post, just add this exact syntax to your subject line: ((nogallery)).

Easy Analytics

Posterous makes it easy to track traffic on your site. You can use their dashboard to monitor site views and page views per post. You can also add in your Google Analytics Domain ID in the settings portion (Manage -> Edit Settings) of your Posterous account. You can also track your RSS feed using Feedburner. Once you burn your Posterous RSS feed, you can paste the new feed URL in the Feedburner box (below the Google Analytics box).

Using Posterous with Multiple Contributors

Posterous is easily used as a community site. Simply click "Manage" at the top right of your Posterous account, then select the "Contributors" tag. Enter the e-mail addresses of the people you want to invite and Posterous will invite them. They will send content to post@nameofsite.posterous.com. Your settings can allow contributors posts to go live immediately or be moderated by you. You even have the option of giving the site a group profile--which allows you to show a different profile and photo of your blog from your own.

How Much Does it Cost?

As with most social media platforms, Posterous is free. Expect advanced features to be released in the future to allow the team at Posterous to make some money.

Of course I highly encourage you to take Posterous for a test drive, simply open an e-mail, type in some content, and hit send.

© Cathy Hutchison 2009

One of the beautiful things about the digital world is that you have access to people you never had access to before.

Your best friend from elementary school? Facebook.

The consumer who is into Czech glass beads? Ebay.

Fly fishing enthusiasts? The North American Fly Fishing Forum.

Conversations of people in your neighborhood? Twitter. (You can narrow the conversation to just your zip code.)

There is unprecedented opportunity to connect in a digital world. However, the flip side is that everyone knows this, so the volume from salesmen, marketers, old friends, business people, charities and causes is at an all time high. A digital world life skill is learning to tune out static. We all do it. (We’d go crazy if we couldn’t.)

So given that you have this amazing opportunity being obscured by the static, how do you communicate in a way that connects?

Build a reputation for relevance.

The term “relevance” is tossed around a lot, but in its most basic form the word relevant means that it is applicable to the person who receives it. For example, if you send me a postcard about a carnival for preschoolers, I’ll toss it. I don’t have preschoolers. It isn’t relevant. Send me an invitation to an event for middle schoolers, and again I’ll toss it. If the next postcard (or e-mail or tweet or blog post) is about something not relevant to me, then my mind will classify your communication as irrelevant and I’ll stop reading/listening. You will have become static.

Probably the best example of this—relevant to you the reader—are the e-mails to you receive from the person who has completely mastered the forward. Remember when you first got on e-mail and actually read the jokes/political commentary/dire threat of a new computer virus? It doesn’t take long to stop opening the e-mails that start with FW:. And if a single person continuously sends them to you, then it doesn’t take long to start hitting delete without even scanning the subject line for the FW.

In a world of static, you can’t afford to broadcast. You have to adopt a narrowcast methodology. Find the person—or group of people—you want to connect with and communicate relevant to them. Or maybe more importantly, make sure they are screened from the communication you send that is irrelevant to them.

Choose visual simplicity.

To survive the volume of visual information we learn to glance and process quickly. We stop reading and learn to scan. So, design your digital connection strategies with that in mind.

The cool thing is that most digital communication is visual—which works well when people are in “scan mode”. So learn to communicate visually and learn to do it well. Garr Reynolds’ blog, Presentationzen.com is one of the best free tutorials on communicating simply using visual media. Check out his post from August of last year on Learning Slide Design from an IKEA Billboard.

Duarte.com is another good resource. You might know Nancy Duarte from her book, slide:ology.

Learn to leverage white space, headers, and brevity of language in the pursuit of simplicity. Simplicity has value in a sea of complexity. Sometimes people will receive your message simply because it is visually simple.

Be the “easy toaster.”

The question I ask most often in my office is “yeah, but is it easy toaster?” The phrase “easy toaster” is based on Seth Godin's blog post about his fancy new toaster that had all kinds of bells and whistles but takes ten steps to make toast. It made him long for his old toaster that only took two steps.

In every opportunity for connection, you have to ask yourself…”is it easy toaster?” If you make people go through ten steps to get to you, chances are they will give up in the process. (Which makes me curious why such a high number of companies require people to fill out forms on their contact page rather than supplying a phone number and e-mail address.)

View every website, postcard, e-mail, program and event through the eyes of the person who is engaging for the first time. Then make absolutely certain that you are the ‘easy toaster’.

The best advice?

While none of us would ever pick up the phone, dial a random number, and start telling the person who answers how much we enjoy sushi, we frequently develop and send digital communication without actually considering the person receiving it. Take the time to develop a connection strategy. After all, it is better to wait and truly connect than to lose your chance later because you’ve been labeled as static.

© Cathy Hutchison 2009

I'm in this odd phase of discovering myself as an artist. Interestingly, my friends would tell you that it has always been there, but it continues to surprise me.

Recently, I was invited at the church I attend to be part of the team to create this mural. There are three of us: Jody Neice, Sunny Raschke and myself. We began by painting a tree modeled off of a piece we saw on the internet and modified for our purposes. Then each of us has been painting a scene live during worship that centers on the piece of the Bible that is being taught. The series goes through the whole story of the Bible in eight weeks.

This week was my week to add. (I also did the 'dove' piece above.)

One of the things about painting in worship is that you focus on the symbology. Never before did I notice the continuity of the dove that came to Noah with a twig in Genesis and the dove as a representation of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel books. Never did I notice the theme of the thorns as part of the curse in Genesis and the crown of thorns in the Gospel books.

This idea of creating art during worship is not unique to my church. It has become a trend. A trend I believe is fueled by the image-rich, interactive digital world that we live in.

I'm really enjoying this.

© Cathy Hutchison 2009

It occurs to me that because organizations are made up of people, the first question when something is wrong starts with "Who?" "Who did that?" "Who isn't participating?" "Who is the problem?" But I'm curious if "who" isn't the wrong way to start the question entirely.

Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan in their book, The Three Laws of Performance, say: The First Law of Performance states that how people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.

Once while working for Caldwell Scott, five-year-old Bianca came up to me perplexed that the Coke machine wouldn't work. When I went to help her, it didn't take long to see why not. Bianca had torn her dollar in half and the machine wouldn't accept it. When I asked her why she tore the dollar, she said, "So I could have a Coke and Katherine could have a Coke."

What would be irrational behavior to you and I (tearing a dollar in half) made perfect sense to five-year-old, Bianca.

The thing is, with children, we tend to ask about behavior we don't understand. But with adults, we assume they are seeing the world the same way we are and that their reactions are irrational. Moreover, we've been trained to think in terms of there being a "bad guy." But unless you happen to have a genuine saboteur, chances are there is no "bad guy." Just a group of people who aren't experiencing the world the same way and therefore aren't working together in harmony.

Which brings us to Zaffron and Logan's Second Rule of Performance: How a situation occurs arises in language. "No matter how smart or insightful people are, we are all prone to being hijacked by what is unsaid – especially the unsaid about which people are unaware."

Kevin Graham Ford, in his book, The Thing in the Bushes asserts that most of the time, organizations do know what is unsaid. They simply won't--or feel they can't--talk about it.

The ability to engage the unsaid is one of the most powerful skills a leader can develop. Because until the "unsaid" is dealt with, it will continue to haunt an organization. In churches--which are by nature non-confrontational--this is particularly challenging. Years and years of the unsaid can build up with people being edited out along the timeline without solving the problem.

Zaffron and Logan point out that once the unsaid is unloaded, there is space to begin to use language to transform the future. And believe it or not, language really does have the power to transform the way you see a situation.

Recently, I had a disconcerting interaction with a group. Their language revealed they thought I wasn't doing some things they felt I should be doing--and given that I only knew them in context of someone else in my life--I realized I hadn't been spoken of well. That she had complained about me to them.

And this bothered me. REALLY bothered me. First that someone close to me would air complaints without sharing them with me. (I didn't know there was a problem.) And secondly, because I actually liked these people.

The heaviness in my soul was erased completely by two simple statements uttered by Elsa-the-Poet when I told her the story. "They don't know the Cathy that you really are." and "If she needs for them to think better of her by making you look bad, why should that bother you? You can do that for her."

And suddenly, it didn't matter any more. It really didn't. It shifted my focus in knowing that their opinion didn't change my identity, and reminded me that my friend has a deep insecurity problem that she often manages with scenarios like the one above. Language changed my perception of the situation.

The language we use...perhaps better put...the stories we tell...can shape our future. But if we tell positive stories without engaging the unsaid, then it feels like whitewash. As if it isn't really true.

What if the questions we need to ask ourselves when we see an organizational "engine light" isn't a who, but a how? "How are the members we view as behaving 'irrationally' experiencing the world?" "How do we engage the unsaid?" "How do we use language to shape a better future?"

Those are powerful questions...and likely far more effective.

© Cathy Hutchison 2009

Most people measure health of organizations in terms of growth, activity, and funds. However I've been a part of large, well-funded organizations that weren't healthy. And, I've been part of small, underfunded organizations and one with limited, focused activity that had great value. So though popular, I'm unsure those are accurate measurements.

Moreover, many times organizations that appear to be growing, well-funded and active, suddenly fall off the map. If organizations operate more like living things than machines, then it makes sense that if they don't get what they need to thrive, they can go from the picture of health to ICU surprisingly quickly.

So, how do you know? Are there other signs that reveal the health organizations?

In all the organizations I've seen go terminal, I've observed two precursors that have nothing to do with growth, activity or cash. And both are in the conversations that happen in the margins. The sidebars. The closed-door meetings. Two phrases that become an "engine light" for knowing you have a problem...

1. If only "they" would... The frequency of the phrase "if only they would" from leadership and/or membership is a dangerous sign. Any time groups start thinking of themselves as an "us" and a "them" there is a lack of health. Not only that, but there is no amorphous "they." There are only people. People you know and are connected with. They have identities, talents and names....and have probably been committed to your organization in gifts, time and energy. "If only they would..." erases the memory of those contributions.

The "if only they would..." phrase also has an element of armchair quarterbacking (the act of coaching a game from the other side of your television screen). And the amount of righteous indignation armchair quarterbacking generates is shocking. That type of negative energy can spread. (Never mind that "armchair quarterbacking" is also completely ineffective.)

2. If only he/she wasn't here... When there is a desire to edit membership or leadership an organization has a real problem. Conversation about making changes in the members of a group is poisonous. It creates scapegoats. It shuts down any possibility that there are problems within ourselves or systemic dynamics at work. (We've watched this happen in too many families over the past five years editing out one spouse for another, and as a result adding/subtracting kids.)

Worse, edits to the group, never solve the problem. Because it focuses attention in the wrong place. It works in a framework of blame. It shuts down any posibility for creative energy. It ignores the organization as a whole.

And there are casualties. People become collateral damage...which is beyond tragic.

This is a more difficult dialogue to change. Because typically the people initiating the dialogue have invested a lot of belief in this remedy. And oddly enough, I'm not sure the solution is to edit the people with this thinking out. (Though like pruning a branch infested with bagworms, it sometimes becomes necessary.)

So what do you do if your litmus test reveals a lack of health? If the phrases "if only they.." and a desire to edit membership is rampant? What do you do?

I've recently stumbled across some writing that intrigued me. Stay tuned for the next post...

© Cathy Hutchison 2009

:::For you who don't work with me, this image is a vintage bi-directional microphone:::

I've been doing a lot of thinking on why people join organizations. We are born into our families and work based on opportunity, but our organizations...charitable causes, activist groups, churches, hobby clubs, etc. are of our own choosing.

And given that they require time and energy, my question is why? What engages us enough to become part? (You might at this point be wondering about the people who have never joined anything, but I'm pretty sure they aren't reading this blog.)

My theory is that it isn't what we give that makes us join organizations, but what we get. After all, organizations that take from us tend to drain us. We burn out. We quit.

But organizations that give something in return...those that provide a sense of belonging, the glue of shared purpose, those that make us feel appreciated, those that help us grow in our personal gifts, that make our lives more satisfying...those are the ones that we continue to pour into. The ones where work feels like play.

The thing is it is a delicate balance. Take too much without giving back and you'll starve your members. Give too much without any requirement and you'll become a circle of whining navel-gazers.

It seems the most sustainable organizations have a structure that supports bi-directional flow. They take and they give...creating a virtuous circle where there is balance between gifts given and gifts received.

Like a fountain, water goes in and water goes out. Start pumping air, and the motor burns up.

Unfortunately, while fountain pumps are interchangeable, the structure that creates bi-directional flow in organizations is not. Each organization and it's members are unique. They vary in size, makeup and purpose. What is life-giving water to some is vinegar to others. (Take artists for example....ask one to do a spreadsheet and it will feel like a chore. Whereas for an accountant it is pure heaven. But, ask an accountant to create a sculpture and...well you can complete the analogy.)

I'm curious if when organizations start showing signs of a lack of balance in flow if people notice? And if they notice, do they know what to do? (I'm not sure I do.) After all, you can tweak meeting times, frequency, program and methods...but none of that ever really seems to work. (And varying opinions on the subject can be deadly.)

I wonder if like fountain pumps, sometimes there is simply blockage? Maybe the internal gears need to occasionally be cleaned, so that bidirectional flow can happen again.

© Cathy Hutchison 2009

It occurs to me that most of the major things that happen in life are major because they affect our identity. Graduation, a promotion, marriage, parenthood...all of those things have great influence on how we see ourselves. Our perception of who we are.

Conversely, if we are going to truly struggle with something...well, that has to do with identity too. For example, one of the reasons unemployment is so devastating has nothing to do with the financial aspect. It has to do with the rejection. It impacts how we see our worth.

"Empty nest" is major for some, and not for others. Isn't that about identity? For parents whose identity is mostly as a "mom" or as a "dad" the transition to a home without children will be much more frightening than parents who have a strong identity with a different role that they play.

Extramarital affairs are all about identity. The betraying spouse sees themselves as younger, more attractive, more powerful--thus the reason they are drawn to do something so destructive in the first place. The betrayed spouse feels unlovely, unwanted, not good enough...thus the reason affairs take so long to recover from--even post-divorce.

Seemingly little things--like an interaction at the office or incidents from school --often stick with us and replay in our minds because they impact our sense of who we are.

Who we are--at least how we see ourselves--matters.

And all the internal pep talks in the world won't change core beliefs about our identity. We can't "cheer" ourselves to a better self concept because most of our ideas about identity are built from external sources.

Dr. Bill Gillham used to say, that if you sit with a baby and point to your nose and say, "nose" the baby doesn't learn that you have a nose, he learns that he has a nose. Children learn about the world in terms of their place in it.

Perhaps the best gift we can give each other is a sense of identity. Pointing out all the wonderful things in the people around us that make them lovely and unique. In families and organizations, building a common sense of mission and purpose--so that people feel like they truly belong.

Perhaps the best gift we can give ourselves is to see our identity as something that is emerging rather than something that is etched in stone. To focus on our own becoming... To do things that take us closer to the beautiful design of who we were always meant to be.

It occurs to me that the whole concept of redemption is about restoring true identity. And that the most destructive force in the universe works to distort our true reflection.

© Cathy Hutchison 2009

You have to admit, it is pretty impressive that with all the content out there on the world wide web, you can type in a phrase and get results in seconds. And while each search engine works just a bit differently, most employ software robots--called spiders--to build lists of the words found on Web sites. Most spiders start on heavily used servers and very popular pages. (Thus the reason Wikipedia ranks so high on almost every subject!) The spider begins with a site indexing the words on its pages and following every link found within the site spreading out across the most widely used portions of the Web. If your site isn't heavily linked to, you can also ask Google to add it to their index at http://www.google.com/addurl/.

Google spiders search out the words within the page prioritizing words occurring on the home page, in titles, subtitles, meta tags and other positions of importance. The Google spider is built to index every significant word on a page ignoring articles, conjunctions, etc. (Note that each search engine takes a slightly different approach.)

Probably one of the most important things to know when designing a site to be found by search engines is to understand how a search engine sees your site. Here is a quick test:

1. Pull up your home page in a browser.
2. Move the mouse to an empty part of the page, right click and select "View Source."

This is what the spider sees. If most of your text on the home page is graphic (ie. you have a flash or Joomla site) then there is a good chance your site contains only references to the graphics. Since spiders read words, it sees nothing to index and moves on. By adding a block of HTML text on your home page you give the spider something to index and can greatly improve your performance in search engines. (Again, remember the spiders count the information and links on the home page as the most important.)

Another component to analyze while in "view source" mode is your site's use of head tags (title, keywords and description). The code you are looking for is The code you are looking for is The code you are looking for is The code you are looking for is:

title for the title of your page;
meta name= "keywords" along with whatever keywords you would like listed;
and meta name="description" with a sentence describing your organization. If that information doesn't exist, ask your web master to add it. (Most search engines will list your description verbiage for the site in the search so it is important to keep it current.)

If you are the web designer, where you edit your head tags (also called meta data) will be different depending on which software you are using, but a quick search in the help section can turn it up quickly.

Of course, the more traffic on your site--the higher the results. So in addition to giving spiders the right words to index, you can also design a site that gives people reasons to visit again and again. Which, is not nearly as simple a "fix."