Shoot The Glass
“Schieß dem fenster… Shoot the Glass.” Hans Gruber, as played by Alan Rickman, Die Hard
Well it’s Christmas Eve and I wasn’t even planning on writing a blog post this week — but thanks to a conversation with my wife about Die Hard, I found myself inspired to write this post. I’m not here to debate whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Though I do have a lot of very strong opinions on that subject…
Let’s focus on what we can learn about leadership from Die Hard. Our hero John McClane is really smart, but he’s less of a leader and more of a lone wolf. He is also a true out-of-the-box thinker, which lends to his success.
Now let’s talk about Hans Gruber, who is arguably one of the best movie villains of all time. But how is he as a leader? Great question, so glad you asked. The entire plan that Hans attempts to execute in the film is chocked full of out-of-the-box thinking. Sure, in recent movies some of the things seem cliche and overdone, but Hans did it first and best.
My favorite example is one of the simplest. Shoot the glass. For those of you that haven’t seen the movie — may God forgive you — let me setup the scene. John isn’t wearing shoes and Hans has recently realized this fact. While Hans and his right hand dude Karl are trying to shoot John, they cannot get a clear shot. So Hans tells Karl to shoot the glass walls of the offices in the area, so that in order to escape, John will have to cross it with his bare feet. John, being the hero, runs across the floor, cuts his feet all to hell and still manages to save the day. Yippee Ki Yay!
Yet what Hans does in that scene is super smart. He sees a weakness and he exploits it. Forget about the troubling circumstances around his plan and instead focus on the idea of working different angles of a problem. That’s exactly what he does in this scene.
So maybe you have a project, a task, a problem, a situation, or whatever at work that you can’t seem to accomplish by attacking it straight on… Maybe it’s time to shoot the glass. I’m not going to give you a big list of ideas here on how to handle this but instead will keep it simple.
Try this: Take a look at the issue that you are facing and stop trying to approach it head on. Ask yourself — are there other angles of approach? Does this project have a weakness that I need to work around? What ideas have I tried so far and what were the results?
After answering those questions to the best of your knowledge, then simply take a step back and observe. Take a little time to look at the situation from every angle you can think of and if possible, engage others to do the same. Then pick a new tactic and try that and see where it gets you.
While it won’t always mean success, it can certainly increase your chances of finding what works for you and for the situation at hand.
I’ve been approaching problems in this manner for years now and what I have found is that I have trained my brain to actually ask those questions before I even start attacking the problem. What that does for me is give me an edge whenever a new problem presents itself. Because I have been so consistent about doing this, it has mostly become an unconscious act.
That’s always the goal. Get to the point where tactics like this are second nature and you will always find yourself more prepared for whatever comes your way.
In the meantime, get out there and break some glass.
-Jason