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What is the PowerPoint® epiphany that will end the misuse of the popular slide presentation software? The answer is in the three simple statements below.

1. We use PowerPoint® to create slides.
2. Slides are a visual tool. Visual.
3. What do we display with this visual tool? Text.

Not just a touch of text but line after line of words on slide after slide. We include lists, bullet points, sentences, even paragraphs. We’ve seen slides filled with text and numbers from edge to edge and from top to bottom. We’ve seen slides dense with text with a couple of graphics thrown in to dress them up. But a text heavy slide can’t be improved by graphics that compete with, and lose to, row upon row and column after column of text.

PowerPoint® pesentations fail because we take this visual tool and we use it to display documents.

I came across this forehead slapping ‘aha’ moment while reading the excellent antidote to poisonous PowerPoint® presentations–Beyond Bullet Points (Microsoft Press, 2007) by Cliff Atkinson.

The premise of the book is that PowerPoint® is a visual tool that should not be cluttered with text and graphics. To be effective, each slide in the presentation should have a main premise stated simply and one compelling graphic that underscores the premise. That’s it; one thought expressed in one short sentence and one graphic to illustrate and support that thought.

No lists, no bullet points. The presenter provides the details; the PowerPoint® provides the nub of the concept.

Beyond Bullet Points offers great detail on how to organize and create slides that tell a story in a simple, compelling, and logical manner. It offers a radical departure from the ordinary PowerPoint® Presentation format, and when you consider the effectiveness of most PowerPoint® presentations, a radical departure is exactly what is needed. The entire Beyond Bullet Points presentation process is explained in full, illustrated with effective examples, and backed up with compelling research.

After reading Beyond Bullet Points I’ll never approach a PowerPoint® presentation the same way again as a presenter or as an audience member. Neither will you.

You set the stage for any negotiation with information. That’s called positioning. The way you present that information, and its content, shape the persona the other negotiator has of your negotiation power, resources, and abilities. #Disinformation plays a vital role in shaping that persona – using it strategically can help you negotiate better.

Disinformation is used in planning wars, corporate espionage, and in the planning stages of negotiations. Think for a moment about the term #FakeNews. What comes to mind? That phrase has become a form of disinformation.

The following is how you can use disinformation to improve your negotiation efforts.

Creating a Disinformation Campaign:

To create disinformation campaigns, start by disseminating information in small cycles first – you want the target to become familiar with it. That’ll make him more susceptible to believing it and the information that follows. Over time, expand it, its believability to the truth, and its cycles. To have the greatest effect on the target, have information disseminated in places that they frequent (e.g. social media post, news outlets, radio, etc.). Doing so will impact their belief as to the validity of the information (i.e. I see/hear it everywhere – so it must be true).

Psychology of Disinformation:

For disinformation to be viable, tie it loosely to the beliefs of your target. People become swayed more easily if they have a preconceived belief about something they accept as already being truthful. So, if you associate your disinformation with their currently held beliefs, they’ll accept your information more readily. The trick is to make your information just within the outer realms of their beliefs. That’s the setup to having them stretch their beliefs as you later present insights further outside of it. Your efforts should become geared to having them expand their beliefs to the point of easily accepting the new insights you present as the truth.

Combating Disinformation:

As you know or may have discovered, disinformation is a powerful mental tool. Thus, while employing it, you must be mindful about its deployment against you.

To improve your plight when disinformation is used against you, ask yourself the following questions.

1. Consider the originating source of the information. Ask yourself, what belief is this information attempting to form in my mind or in the mind of my supporters?
2. How was the information delivered? Did it arrive through a source that has proven to be believable in the past? Is that source being manipulated?
3. What new paradigms is this information attempting to create and who benefits from it?
4. To what degree are others attempting to alter my perception for the benefit of who they’re serving?
5. What happens if I ignore the information?

Posing such questions to yourself and your confidants will help you evaluate the information and its potential validity. I’m not suggesting you become paranoid. What I’m suggesting is you not readily accept information at face value as the truth. There are too many ways to get disinformation into today’s environment. Guard the door that keeps it away from you.

Disinformation is used in all realms of negotiation. And, there is a multitude of ways that it’s used. Therefore, the better you become at utilizing it, and knowing how to thwart its use against you, the better you’ll become as a negotiator… and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!