Are you a good "user" at museums?

Two weeks ago, I visited the Exploratorium to experience an exhibition created by Tibetan Buddhist monks to showcase their scientific illustrations about the human sensory perception and the crossover between modern science and traditional Buddhist beliefs.  As this was the first time any outside audience was seeing their work, the monks as well as the scientific and education community in collaboration with this project were eager for questions and feedback from us to make improvements, sorta like a usability test.  And I was a bad user.  Funny I write about this because we just had a staff meeting on bad users or what we call “trainwreck users”. Though I wasn’t wrecking trains, I would rate myself as a poor user.  I had little patience and time for reading through the exhibition panels. I didn’t ask any questions. I was more interested in having a picture taken with the monks and getting to know about the Dalai Lama and what it's like in Tibet, only I didn’t have the courage to go up and talk to them.  I didn’t give  much feedback. If this were an actual usability test situation and the museum had recruited me, they shouldn’t invite me back to do more. But as a museum goer and attendee of the museum’s “After Dark” event, my trip to the Exploratorium was a successful one. I enjoyed good food and wine from their cafe, my friend and I were inspired by things we learned from the exhibits and we had several conversations about them.   We gave the Exploratorium good business so I don’t feel too bad about being a bad exhibition user. Some highlights for me from the exhibits:

• A look at some research studies on what kind of impact meditation has on the brain

Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas is talking about a past study at Harvard University where the participants who were put in mindfulness-based stress reduction conditions showed actual growth in areas of the brain (left Hippocampus) that plays a role in memory and processing information.

• A Master Chanter performing low pitch chanting and looking at the science behind overtone singing.

So, the findings from Dr. Simon-Thomas suggest that if contemplative practices help improve areas in the brain that are involved in laying down memories and retrieval and integrating information it with past knowledge, it'd only make me kickass at everything I do, especially for my work,  and the corporate world (and the rest of the world) that much more productive.  I look forward to seeing more results on the effects of meditation in the work place. A topic for another research study anyone?