Iconoclass: a school betting on self-help
Better humans make better performers
Iconoclass is an alternative school (based online, in Paris and in London) that prepare students to become a business developer. Students are trained for 3 months and start reimbursing the school once they get employed. The particularity? 20% of the program is focused on self-help methods.
Marie Taquet, the founder, and I met back in the early days of Iconoclass. We connected over shared interests in alternative education and the importance of teaching wellness tools. She believes that to make exceptional sales people, you need to train them to communicate better, to exercise empathy, and to regulate their emotions. This makes them better performers, happier colleagues, and unique individuals.
Marie says, “In traditional schools, they teach students to kill their vibe: to fit into one way of thinking, creating, doing. But companies are looking for employees who are driven by their mission, stand out with their personality, and have strong communication skills. To become that kind of employee, one needs to master self-confidence and unlearn academic habits.”
Implanting wellbeing tools in a bootcamp
Mathieu Thomé is in charge of the school’s self-help program. He creates experiences for students to better understand who they are and be in a positive relationship with the world. He uses tools like Non-violent communication, self-hypnosis and improvisation, aiming to bridge these tools with biz dev teachings.
“The world of business is focused on the competencies related to the mind. The emotional and spiritual dimensions are neglected, which leads to dissatisfaction and illnesses for the employees. For the companies, it means more turnover and less efficiency.” To improve it, nothing better than educating the people on those topics while they are still at school.
Mathieu embodies his work. He discovered the tools of wellness after working for decades in companies himself. Feeling so much enthusiasm and transformation from these practices, he decided to bring them to more people.
“Whatever job you’re doing, you’re a human being first. Developing your human skills will always make you better at work,” he says. “Furthermore, in the context of Iconoclass, to sell is all about relationships. To know how to relate to others, you first have to learn how to be in a real relationship with yourself.”
Rather than trying to evaluate or quantify his students’ wellbeing, he is led by intuition and constant feedback from them. Speaking with Mathieu, I was inspired by the broader shift of paradigm it’d mean, if we normalized leading with intuition when we do social work.
Students love it
I had the opportunity to talk with one of their youngest students, part of the current cohort. Damka is an 18-year-old student who dropped out of college after 6 months, prior to joining the program. Fascinated by human relations and looking for an intense training program to learn a new skill, Iconoclass seemed the logical next step.
He discovered the world of introspection at Iconoclass and saw that these teachings opened his mind to new ways of relating to himself and the world.
“What we learn with Mathieu makes complete sense in relation to the rest of the training. I believe those tools will help me to find a job, be a killer employee, but they’ll also help me feel good in my daily life. I might not be a biz dev for the rest of my career, but the tools will definitely follow me, whatever I decide to do next.”
It’s urgent to teach students how to know themselves better. This is at the root of any soft skill, which are the only skills we’re absolutely sure will be useful to people in the future. This should be the focal point of any educational project that aims to push humanity forward.
As always, thanks for reading!
Every Friday, I’ll publish a new article to review a school or educational product that I love- on who should I write next? Reply to this article or write to me on Twitter to let me know!
From the Internet by Zelda :-)
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Hey it’s Zelda; I’ve been writing about people’s wellness & education since I was 14. Share with me your thoughts here: zeldapoem@gmail.com
So real !!
From an Iconoclass student ❤