The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life's Most Difficult Problems, published in 2011, is a self-help book by Stephen Covey, also the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

[1] Co-author Breck England stated that The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People leads up to The 3rd Alternative.

When a person adopts this paradigm and wins the "private victory," he or she is ready to turn toward others, according to Covey's 7 Habits.

[1] In this paradigm, interests are not obstacles to each other, but principles required to be understood by both parties involved in order to generate a solution for both.

Covey has explained that, when engaged in a negotiation or confronted with a problem, most people are not aware that a 3rd Alternative even exists.