How to change group behaviour

What does it take to make major changes in group behaviour, whether it be a shift in what is societally acceptable, or perhaps for a company introducing a new product to a market when customers are rooted in using the old and established offerings?

..in the 1970s, people lit up almost anywhere, smoking away in other people’s houses, in pubs and on buses. Today, smokers congregate outside. In the 1980s, drink driving was common. It was regarded as a bit iffy but we did it.

Today, for nearly everybody it is a complete no no. Some older drivers are still at it, but socially, drink driving is completely unacceptable. Had you told my late father — a lifelong dog lover, owner and walker — that he’d be expected to pick up his own dog’s droppings in a bag, he would have laughed you out of the park.

Yet all these behavioural changes have come about and are now accepted to such an extent that people can’t imagine going back to the old ways. This is what societal change looks like. Something that was once accepted as normal becomes an affront to respectable folk.

David McWilliams, introducing the idea of free public transport in Dublin