Up to the Challenge: Lori Schock
Listen and Learn
Photography by Robert Schoen
Lori Schock, copresident of the HBS Student Association, defines her leadership role as being an activist for students' priorities. “When I go to meetings, I'm constantly thinking of the hundreds of other students I represent. It's not my opinion that counts,” she insists, “it's theirs.”
One opinion that was heard loud and clear during Schock's SA service was a call for a new prescription drug plan for HBS students. Schock was among student leaders who met with University health officials and the HBS administration early last fall to put a plan into place that reduced the deductible students have to pay before being reimbursed for prescriptions from over $700 to under $200. “This was a true team effort, with many students working together,” she notes. “It was rewarding to play a small part in making a difference on an important student issue.”
“If I've learned one thing, it's analyze problems with an open mind."
Schock, who graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in chemical engineering, believes SA presidents must be able to form a bridge linking students with faculty and administrators. “Part of it is being able to match student requests with the most appropriate resources, but it's also important to help students understand the School's perspectives. Laying the facts on the table and helping all parties to understand each other is the most exciting piece of the job.”
A Cincinnati native, Schock's lilting Midwestern voice is peppered with moments of laughter as she recounts the work experiences that helped shape her communications skills. Before she enrolled at HBS, Henkel/Cognis Chemical Corporation sent Schock to Los Angeles to train manufacturing workers on a computer system used for data reconciliation. The assignment proved challenging. “I was a total outsider running a class designed to change the work patterns of an experienced manufacturing team,” she grimaces. “The class was a complete failure.”
The team's initial refusal to buy into the new system illustrated to Schock the importance of flexibility and of valuing every team member. Her response was to deepen her involvement in the process by listening to the team and watching them work. While shadowing each team member, she was able to explain how the new computer system would work to his or her advantage on a practical level. “I learned as much as they did from that experience,” she notes.
Schock's successful interactions as SA copresident often hinged on understanding the reasoning behind the planning processes, organizational structures, and communication channels already in place, she says. Upon leaving HBS, she hopes to take the knowledge she's gained about well-run organizations back into the manufacturing world. “After this, I don't think I'll fall into thinking ‘Go with the status quo,'” she predicts. “If I've learned one thing, it's to analyze problems with an open mind.”
Schock says her husband, Chris, has provided major support and served as a sounding board during her time at HBS. “He's really invested a lot of time and energy in the HBS community, including giving tours of our Soldiers Field apartment to five hundred prospective students and stuffing 59 party bags with HBS mementos for Admit Day festivities,” she laughs. “I really owe him!”
Schock will soon get a chance to repay the favor. After graduation, she plans to work in London in the Engineered Products Division of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company while her husband pursues a graduate degree at the London School of Economics.
— Kathleen Brill
