It all started when one of the designers started bringing a healthier lunch to work each day. We all noticed. Some of us made smart comments. Others just clung to their microwaveable meals with guilt. But that day started something.

Now, healthy lunches are the norm in our offices. You’re more likely to see fruits and vegetables than chips on our lunch table. The change didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it took quite a long time. So long, it was almost invisible. But if you compare our behavior from a year ago to today, the change becomes drastic.

The same thing happened when a group of coworkers began talking about their workout routines. Give it some time, and everyone has stories about going to the gym or their latest P90-X workout.

That really got me thinking. What made people want to change the way they did things? It couldn’t have been guilt – at least, not entirely. We’re an open and friendly enough agency here and are all friends, so there wasn’t any judging being passed around.

After going through many possibilities, I finally concluded that behavior is contagious. Good behavior breeds good behavior, and bad behavior breeds bad behavior.

It’s why we all act the way we do in different settings. Compare how you act in a library or bookstore to how you act at a football game. It’s not the rules that determine our actions. After all, there are plenty of rules being broken at football games. It’s everyone around us that influences how we act.

So why is this important? Let’s say you wanted to change your corporate culture, introduce a new policy or procedure, improve morale or just generally change how people act around you and in your business. What would be the best way to do it?

Write a new rule?

Give a presentation?

Or start acting that way yourself?

It’s as easy as Gandhi said several decades ago, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Of course, changing your behavior isn’t easy, but it is contagious.