When you use 3Lunches in a collaborative fashion, to offer ideas, to kick around business concepts or to share information, there is a slightly different dynamic. We call this Collaborative Coaching. Though we’ve developed suggested rules to guide this kind of exchange, we haven’t posted them in the Table Manners section of this site because of space.

That didn’t stop Dave Mayer, however, from experimenting with 3Lunches at work. Dave is EVP, North American Specialized Expertise Outsourcing at ARISTEIA and he’s adapted the 3Lunches format in a very cool way. Dave and I met on Twitter and after a few polite exchanges, Dave was off and running.

“Rather than get into very traditional coach/coachee relationships over lunch, we’ve been asking our account execs (including myself) to get into information and coaching exchange relationships. So we’ll partner up with someone at a client or partner organization who’s looking for mentoring services or short-term coaching…we’re looking for ways we can trade knowledge and insight.

Here are a few exchanges we’ve done so far:

• Insight on corporate presentations swapped for a detailed breakdown of the wireless wholesale market
• Recommendations on how to choose and manage MBA education swapped for insight on selling into large chip-making organizations
• Work-life balance guidance swapped for first-person experience in hiring and managing Gen Ys

So far it’s been fantastic. Everyone’s reported having a great experience and without a clear delineation of who is coaching whom, there has been a healthy exchange of ideas and perspectives.”

Dave and his team are using 3Lunches like an information swap meet. I like it…a lot. Would this method of collaborative coaching work in your organization or in your life?