In the dining room at Whistling Straits Restaurant, Destination Kohler – one of the properties under the oversight of Christine Loose ’88. Photo courtesy Kohler Co.

Open Door Policy

by Rob Kaiser

Often, late at night, after many if not most at Kohler Company had gone home and their offices were dark, one light still burned. Happening by the office of Christine Loose ’88 on one of these occasions, Shawn Dortman stopped in for a chat. “It didn’t always focus on the challenges of work,” Dortman recalls. The two discussed kids. Weekend plans. New purses. But Dortman knew job-related concerns were never far from Loose’s mind.

The year was 2010, and Loose had recently switched from the plumbing division at Kohler, where she oversaw consumer customer relations, to the company’s hospitality sector. Chosen for the job – resident manager of The American Club resort – Loose had to figure out a constructive way to at once chart a course and cultivate relationships. That made for anxious times. “I knew what I was up against,” she says. “The biggest risk I took was transitioning from Kohler plumbing to hospitality. Although I worked a few hospitality jobs in high school and college, I did not study hospitality, nor did I work my way up in hospitality. Many of my new colleagues were betting against me.”

But Loose rose to the occasion.

“Christine excels at learning and loves new challenges,” says her husband, Bob Loose. “She knew for sure that she didn’t have the industry experience many had, but she was more than willing to learn and accept input from experts and those around her.”

Loose started by picking up a bottle of Windex. She set about learning, hands-on, every job at the hotel. “What Christine did especially well is, she went in and got her hands dirty with unbelievable, rigid consistency – making beds, running the vacuum cleaner,” says Dortman. “She really established strong street-credibility with the staff, and was relentless about it.”

‘It’s like you’re welcoming Christ’
This is a story of two cultures – those of two storied institutions – and the woman in whom they converge each and every day. There’s St. Norbert, where the practice of radical, or deep-rooted, hospitality in the monastic tradition is intrinsic to the college’s mission. There’s Kohler, with its own unique brand, tradition of excellence and similar commitment to community and hospitality. And there’s Loose, an SNC trustee who graduated from the college with a degree in math; earned a general manager certificate in hospitality administration and management from Cornell University in 2011; and has spent the past 20 years working at the Wisconsin-based Kohler, where she has risen swiftly and is now vice president of lodging and wellness.

A decade ago, as Loose navigated her moment of reckoning at Kohler, she drew strength not only from the goodwill of frontline employees who appreciated her learning their jobs by doing them. She also drew strength from the support of her family, including her husband of now 29 years and their son and daughter, now grown. She drew strength from what Dortman calls “her big, beautiful personality,” a personality that so daunted Loose’s shy husband when they met that he let a go-between ask for her phone number. And she drew strength from a faith reinforced at St. Norbert and the radical hospitality she learned there.

Radical hospitality as a Christian concept stems from the Biblical injunction to welcome the stranger at the gate. In a world currently struggling to deal with the largest movement of peoples in human history, radical hospitality may seem just that – radical. But the monastic tradition is intrinsic to the Norbertine mission and culture as it is to those of other religious orders.

Norbertine hospitality can be traced back to the earliest days of the order. Abbeys welcomed travelers and all strangers with a meal and a place to sleep. “In the ancient world, hospitality was one of the most sacred obligations of the people,” William Hyland, founding director of the college’s Center for Norbertine Studies, told this magazine in 2008. “When you think about the roots of the Norbertines, when you think about monasticism, it’s central. Every guest you receive, it’s like you’re welcoming Christ.”

Keeping an eye on the Packers
Loose got an early taste of the hospitality industry while serving on the student-staffed security team at St. Norbert, which in the summer worked the dorm where the Green Bay Packers stayed during training camp. The Packers used St. Norbert classrooms for their evening playbook review. “We provided the babysitter, the security, just made sure nobody went in or out,” Loose says.

Though Loose at that point had no plans to pursue a career in hospitality, the faith that would ease her eventual transition into the industry and help her succeed in it continued to grow, she says. “I believe in kindness small and big. Holding a door open. Saying thank you to anyone who provides me customer service. And taking my turn – no skipping allowed. These are little things I do every day with the hope that I will inspire others to be kind.”

Loose thinks of radical hospitality as “the simple act of being kind and putting others’ needs first.” She says, “At work, I regularly tell my team ‘family first.’ The hospitality industry is demanding, and often we work long days and weeks. But if we don’t carve out time to attend a family member’s concert, sporting event or activity, those moments are gone forever.”

Bob Loose benefited immediately from Christine’s compassion – and from his own family’s gift of hospitality. Meeting her at his parents’ wedding anniversary, he was attracted to her at first sight, he says. “But I was very shy and was too afraid to ask her for her phone number.”

“I did, though, keep going on and on to my family members that I really wanted to ask her. But I kept finding a reason not to.” Finally a family member offered to serve as intermediary. “My Aunt Chris told me she was going to ask her for me.”

“How old is he,” Christine asked Chris, looking across the room at Bob, who looked young for his age.

“To my surprise,” he says, “(Christine) gave (his aunt) the number and said I should call her….

“Christine told me later that the only reason she gave her number to my aunt is because my family was so nice all evening.”

‘A gracious nature’
Loose, who before working at Kohler was the classified advertising call-center manager at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, began her career at the Wisconsin-based plumbing-fixtures company in customer service after answering a blind ad that said, “Calling all Call Center Managers.”

Today Loose oversees The American Club and the Inn on Woodlake hotels, in Kohler, Wis.; Riverbend private membership, also in Kohler; Lodge Kohler, in Green Bay, Wis.; and the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews, Scotland. Dortman says: “She came from a polar-opposite industry … and has been incredibly successful. She’s incredibly smart.”

Having earned the respect of many at Kohler, and in her new industry at large, doesn’t mean Loose’s job is a breeze now. Most weeks she works up to 55 hours. And last year was hard. “2021 was an exceptionally tough year in hospitality due to staffing shortages,” she says. Complicating matters, Kohler hosted the 43rd Ryder Cup.

Like every life, Loose’s is bumpy with little problems, too. But many of the problems Loose faces are good ones – those of her own making through the force of her success. Kohler’s American Club web page bears a note that the hotel is “experiencing unprecedented call volume.” Loose explains: “Interest in golf is at an all-time high, because golf is viewed as COVID-safe, being an outdoor activity. And the Ryder Cup placed our resort on the global stage.”

But Loose is warm and has an easy laugh. When she met the challenge of transferring to an industry that didn’t seem to want her at first, the experience didn’t harden her, Dortman says. In a professional moment of truth, Loose, practicing a kind of radical hospitality, managed to remain herself, and then some.

“This sounds really strange, but as she’s gone higher up from a promotional standpoint, I really think she’s softened from a gracious nature. Her shoulders have softened,” Dortman says. “She walks a bit slower.”

“If the experience had hardened her, in this industry, that would have.”

March 17, 2022