March Leadership Lecture featured
Chief Technology Officer from Design Ready Controls
Multi-generational workforce development, embracing conflict and harnessing diverse perspectives to find creative solutions were just a few of the topics Mitch DeJong spoke about at Dunwoody’s March 1 C. Charles Jackson Leadership Lecture.
The Chief Technology Officer at Design Ready Controls, DeJong shared leadership lessons he’s learned from a career that has spanned the automotive, environmental and manufacturing sectors.
“Embracing passion equals embracing conflict,” DeJong said during his lecture, explaining that when you can embrace conflict between two diverse viewpoints, rather than trying to build a middle-ground consensus that doesn’t make either side happy, you can arrive at a better solution.
DeJong has a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Natural Resources Science and Management and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University.
His career and research have focused on multi-perspective design in a variety of fields, including: automotive design, expert systems software architecture, natural resources planning, and most recently, multi-generational workforce development.
Design Ready Controls is a growing manufacturing company headquartered out of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.