Coaching and Co-Learning — Coach as Mirror

Coaching and Co-Learning — Coach as Mirror

From WLEI - Lean Enterprise Institute’s Podcast by Lean Enterprise Institute

April 14, 2026 · 16 min · Episode 129

About this episode

This episode discusses the benefits of coaching and mutual learning in the lean community with insights from industry leaders.

This week The Management Brief presents the second installment in our series on coaching across the lean community and the benefits of mutual learning — senior leaders with external and/or internal lean coaches as well as peer-to-peer relationships. These connections can deliver more value and open avenues of understanding and growth not possible when leaders try to go it alone. Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, is joined by Desh Edirisuriya, General Manager, New Zealand Manufacturing and Business Excellence with Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, and Jim Luckman, LEI Coach and Partner in Lean Transformations Group. Fisher & Paykel is a manufacturer of respiratory care products based in Auckland, and the company is driven by an objective to improve care and outcomes for patients. Desh was instrumental in setting up the company’s Business Excellence function. He was first exposed to lean during an extraordinary growth phase at the company, implementing tools and processes to solve the problem of scaling up. Desh has been with Fisher & Paykel for 25 years, along the way learning how to better understand his role as it has changed and where he must focus. Desh says Jim…

People in this episode

Host: Mark Reich

Guests: Desh Edirisuriya, Jim Luckman

Topics covered

  • coaching
  • lean community
  • mutual learning
  • leadership
  • business excellence

Keywords

  • coaching
  • lean
  • leadership
  • business excellence
  • mutual learning
  • Fisher & Paykel
  • feedback

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare

Places: Auckland

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