I recently received a message from a Twitter acquaintance expressing enthusiasm about 3Lunches and then he asked, “How much does it cost?”  After I explained that it didn’t cost a thing, I thought it might be an opportune time for a post on the 3Lunches concept.

Right alongside the recession and its aftermath, a new sense of our connectedness was loosed in the world; it was suddenly apparent to many of us that we are all intimately connected and ultimately dependent on one another for our financial success, social stability and personal happiness—whether we like it or not. We have learned that we rise, and fall, together. 3Lunches—a philosophy of friend-to-friend support and coaching—seems perfectly timed.

3Lunches is a radical, profoundly simple idea; it encourages friends to coach one another over lunch. Yes, there are life coaches, business coaches, spiritual coaches, and countless types of therapists, but we have a local resource that often goes untapped…our friends. While we are not diminishing the value of paid professionals, we propose that the belief that the only good resources for help must be purchased is a fallacy. We think help and resources should be available to all of us—and given by all of us. We want to convert the dependence on outside “experts” to reliance on the real experts—those whose expertise is achieved organically and earned by authentic experience. And who are these new experts? We are. Every single one of us is an expert at something; it could be parenting, negotiating a divorce, fitness, making friends, dog walking, dating, marriage, accounting, flirting, cooking; we all know things others’ don’t. Why not share that knowledge?

Taking a cue from the 2.0 developer world where open access, free content and idea sharing abounds, we have created a simple template for a free, easy exchange of ideas and information between friends. You can take 3Lunches to kick around business ideas, to ask for dating advice, to create synergy between corporate divisions, to get help with a career switch, to be introduced into a company or educational environment—you can use this process any way you see fit.

3Lunches is our gift to the world. It’s a nudge to be kind and open and generous with your knowledge and experience. It’s a simple, soft-rule guided, time-limited process to give what you can…and get what you need. It’s a perfect app; it’s free, social and designed to effect positive change.

So, what is your expertise? What is that one thing that you are really good at? What do you know better than anyone around you? It could be anything from baking cakes to organic chemistry to shopping.  Share your expertise!

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