One of my favourite books from the last year has been “Humanize” by Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant. I have quoted it often and like Dan Pink’s “Drive”, it has been one of those books that has really shaped my thinking. The funny thing is that I would have never read the book unless I wrote a post about my thoughts on “Humanizing Our Organizations“, and received a comment suggesting I should take a look.
Because of my work and my love for this book, I have quoted the book often in my blog and in my keynotes. Yesterday, I shared the following quote in a keynote to Peel District School Board:
“As the Internet has become more central in our lives, we have begun to witness a revival of the importance of being human.” Notter and Grant
To my surprise, somehow Jammie Notter got wind of what I had shared and when checking my Twitter feed after my talk, I saw the following tweet:
So apparently @gcouros just gave the best keynote in the history of humankind, and he mentioned #humanize! Thanks George! #TLDWPeel
— Jamie Notter (@jamienotter) August 22, 2013
Wow.
Obviously he is over-exaggerating in his comments, but it was just cool to be acknowledged by an author that I admire greatly publicly that is outside of the education sector. I have no idea how he even knew I mentioned the book, but obviously it showed up somehow on his Twitter stream. I was kind of giddy. I have seen this happen with our students, but I guess I am still amazed by how quickly and easily we connect with people all over the world.
As the population continues to grow, I realize the world is smaller than ever. It is definitely something we have to take advantage of with our students.
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by George Couros
