The 3rd Alternative

Solving Life’s Most Difficult Problems

by Stephen Covey

Number of pages: 456

Publisher: Free Press

BBB Library: Communication, Psychology and Strengths

ISBN: 9781451626261



About the Author

Stephen Covey is an internationally respected leadership authority, family expert, teacher, author, organizational consultant, and co-founder and vice Chairman of FranklinCovey Co. He and his wife and family live in the Rocky Mountains of Utah.

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Editorial Review

If I see only the mental map of 1st Alternative—my own map—then the only way out is to persuade you to shift your paradigm or even force you to accept my alternative: I must win and you must lose.  If, on the other hand, I throw away my map and follow yours—the 2nd Alternative—I face the same problem: You might win, but I could lose.  We could combine maps, and that helps.  Maybe we can come up with a better solution than either one of us has in mind. That solution is known as: The 3rd Alternative.

Book Reviews

"In his new book, The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life’s Most Difficult Problems, Stephen Covey, cofounder of Franklin Covey Co. (NYSE: FC), with Breck England, chief writer, Franklin Covey, turns his formidable insight to creative problem solving, presenting a powerful new way to resolve professional and personal conflicts and create innovative solutions to great challenges in society." Business Wire

"You get to the 3rd Alternative through synergy, which happens when the talents of two or more people add up to more than the sum of the parts. Synergy starts when I go to a person I differ with and say, “You see things differently." Forbes

"In my new book The 3rd Alternative, I tell many remarkable stories of people who have found higher and better solutions to old problems, who break the weary cycle of 2-Alternative thinking, and transform the future. I'd be excited to hear your stories too; please let me know." Huffington Post

"The 3rd Alternative, Stephen Covey’s last book—actually published in the very year of his death—is perhaps more than this great man could give. It is more, much more than a ‘business’ book, as the vision of leadership it teaches and embodies surpasses by far the realm of business." Bliss Views

"In The 3rd Alternative, Dr Covey describes a new way to resolve professional and personal difficulties and create solutions. In a conflict, the 1st Alternative is my way and the 2nd Alternative is your way." Asias Success

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Wisdom to Share

The best leaders don’t deny or repress conflict. They see it as an opportunity to move forward

The synergistic miracle of our world depends on the wellness of the whole.

Learn to say, “I’m sorry” once you realize you’ve fallen short or hurt somebody.

We live on an interdependent planet where the whole is far more than the sum of parts, so we cannot treat the parts in isolation or as if they don’t count.

There is a path that cuts through nearly all life’s dilemmas and deep divisions. It’s not your way, and it’s not my way. It’s a higher way.

We used to think of ‘my team’ against ‘your team’. My team is right and just; your team is wrong and perhaps unjust.

In a compromise, one plus one equals one and a half at best. Everybody loses something.

If a person of your intelligence and competence and commitment disagrees with me, then there must be something to your disagreement that I don’t understand, and I need to understand it.

Birds in a V formation can fly nearly twice as far as a lone bird because of the updraft created by the flapping of their wings.

The first paradigm is about seeing myself as a unique human being capable of independent judgment and action.

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