Dianne Dejolsvay is the EHS manager at 3M for their Film and Materials Resource Division. As a PE, CSP and CHMM she brings a depth of EHS knowledge and technical expertise to 3M’s program. She previously was a consultant for 16 years before spending the last 15 years at 3M.
During the Coffee and Compliance webinar, Dianne and Ryan started the conversation with her career journey, and how it has evolved the way she approaches EHS management . Some key takeaways from the conversation were: broaden your career, follow your passions, and understand the industry.
Throughout her career, Dianne has had the opportunity to explore many different avenues of EHS. She emphasized that in order to pivot your career from one area to the next, it is important to dive into a lot of opportunities and focus your energy on what interests you the most.
“What haven’t you done?” Ryan asked Dianne after she summarized her career path. Her response was, “it feels like there’s a lot I haven’t done.” Her reason: as you broaden your career, it’s hard to be deep . However, broadening your career allows you to take opportunities and explore what interests you, and where your strengths lie.
After summarizing her own career path, Dianne said that in order to find a balance between exploring broadly or diving deep, one could choose two- tracks: becoming a supervisor or supervising a subject, the management track or the technical track.
When Dianne was asked the question of how EHS has evolved, her answer returned to the two-track mentality. Because 3M is a global, Fortune 500 company, it has a great responsibility to meet regulatory and public expectations. Therefore, it is important to have teams with a diverse set of expertise. It is important to have a balance of individuals who are willing to be the experts on one particular subject, but also, individuals who are willing to understand everything about one subject. It really comes down to people management versus subject matter management; having resources and tools that enable teams to focus on the operations while managing the data is critical to a successful EHS program.
As an EHS Manager, Dianne supports her team with professional development and her ability to be a good listener. When asked about her top advice, Dianne listed her ideas:
Have goals but be open to opportunities
Follow your passions
Don’t wait to be a leader
Start before you’re an expert
Take a chance on the job no one else wants
Focus on bringing others with you
A final anecdote of wisdom that Dianne wished she had heard when she was starting out was that a career is about the people : “The ones you are protecting, the ones you work with, and the ones you are working for.”