Autorentext

Stephen R. Covey

Klappentext

From the multimillion-copy bestselling author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" comes a breakthrough approach to conflict resolution and creative problem solving in this groundbreaking work.

Zusammenfassung
From the multimillion-copy bestselling author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, hailed as the #1 Most Influential Business Book of the Twentieth Century, The 3rd Alternative introduces a breakthrough approach to conflict resolution and creative problem solving.

There are many methods of “conflict resolution,” but most involve compromise, a low-level accommodation that stops the fight without breaking through to new and innovative results. The 3rd Alternative introduces a breakthrough approach to conflict resolution and creative problem solving, transcending traditional solutions to conflict by forging a path toward a third option. A third alternative moves beyond your way or my way to a higher and better way—one that allows both parties to emerge from debate or even heated conflict in a far better place than either had envisioned. With the third alternative, nobody has to give up anything, and everyone wins.

Through key examples and stories from his work as a consultant, Covey demonstrates the power of 3rd Alternative thinking. His wide-ranging examples include a Canadian metropolitan police force that transformed a crime-plagued community; a judge who brought a quick, peaceful end to one of the biggest environmental lawsuits in American history without setting foot in a courtroom; the principal of a high school for children of migrant workers who raised their graduation rate from 30 percent to 90 percent; a handful of little-known people who are quietly finding new ways to bring peace to the Middle East; and many others. These various groups and individuals offer living examples of how to create new and better results instead of escalating conflict, as well as how to build strong relationships based on an attitude of winning together.

Beyond conflict and compromise, The 3rd Alternative unveils a radical, creative new way of thinking.

Leseprobe
3rd Alternative

1

The Transition Point

Life is full of problems. Problems that seem impossible to solve. Personal problems. Family problems. Problems at work, in our neighborhoods, and in the world at large.

Perhaps you’re in a marriage that started off great, but now you can barely stand each other. You may have estranged relationships with your parents, siblings, or children. It could be that you feel overwhelmed and out of balance at work, always trying to do more with less. Or maybe, like so many others, you are tired of our litigious society, in which people are so quick to sue you don’t dare make a move. We worry about crime and its drag on our society. We see politicians going at it and getting nowhere. We watch the news at night and lose hope that the perpetual conflicts between people and nations will ever be resolved.

So we lose hope, give up, or settle for a compromise that doesn’t feel so good in the end.

That’s why I’ve longed to write this book.

It’s about a principle so fundamental that I believe it can transform your life and the whole world. It is the highest and most important insight I have garnered from studying those people who lead truly effective lives.

Basically, it’s the key to solving life’s most difficult problems.

All people suffer adversities, mostly in silence. Most soldier on bravely in the face of their problems, working and hoping for a better future. For many, terror is just under the surface. Some of these terrors are physical, some psychological, but all are very real.

If you understand and live by the principle in this book, you may not only conquer your problems, but you may go on to build a future for yourself that’s better than you ever imagined possible. I did not discover this principle—it’s eternal. But for those who apply it to the challenges they face, it’s no understatement to say that it may be the greatest discovery of their lives.

My book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People leads up to it. Of all the principles in that book, I called it “the most catalytic, the most empowering, the most unifying, and the most exciting.” In The 7 Habits, I was able to deal with this principle in only a general way; but in this book, I invite you to explore it with me much more broadly and deeply. If you pay the price to truly understand it, you’ll never think the same way again. You’ll find yourself approaching your most difficult challenges in life in an entirely new, exponentially more effective way.

I’m profoundly excited to share with you stories about some rare people who have grasped this principle. They are not only problem solvers but also creators of the new future we all dream of. Among many, you’ll read about

• A father who rescued his troubled daughter from years of despair and near suicide in one surprising evening.

• A young man in India who is solving the problem of electric power for millions of poor people—at virtually no cost.

• A police chief who cut the juvenile crime rate in a major Canadian city by half.

• A woman who is bringing New York’s polluted harbor back to life—again at almost no cost.

• A husband and wife who once could hardly speak to each other and now laugh together about those difficult days.

• The judge who brought a quick, peaceful end to the biggest environmental lawsuit in American history—without setting foot in a courtroom.

• The principal of a high school for migrant workers’ children who raised the graduation rate from a dismal 30 percent to 90 percent and tripled his students’ basic skill levels—without spending any more money.

• A single mother and her teenager who went from bitter confrontation to renewed understanding and affection.

• A doctor who cures virtually all his patients of a deadly disease at a fraction of the price other doctors charge.

• The team that transformed Times Square from a cesspool of violence and filth to the top tourist attraction in North America.

Let me emphasize: none of these is a celebrity with lots of money and influence. All are, for the most part, ordinary people who are successfully applying this supreme principle to their toughest problems. And so can you.

I can hear you thinking, “Well, I’m not trying to do anything heroic like those people. I’ve got my own problems, and they’re big to me. I’m tired, and I just want to find a solution that works.”

Believe me, there’s nothing in this book that isn’t both global and personal. The principle applies equally well to a single mother trying her hardest to raise a restless teenager as to a head of state trying to stop a war.

You can apply this principle to

• A serious conflict at work with your boss or co-workers.

• A marriage with “irreconcilable differences.”

• A dispute with your child’s school.

• A situation that has put you in financial trouble.

• A critical decision you have to make on your job.

• A battle over some issue in your neighborhood or community.

• Family members who quarrel chronically—or won’t speak to each other at all.

• A weight problem.

• A job that doesn’t satisfy you.

• A child who won’t “launch.”

• A knotty problem you need to solve for a customer.

• An is…