Imo came from the Koshima troop.
 
Discovered in 1953, this year and a half old showed her family friends and neighbors another way to eat her food.
She loved to eat sweet potatoes, but instead of just eating them like all of the rest of her clan, Imo decided to wash them prior to eating.

Does that surprise you?

It should, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think.
 
Imo was a macaque, short-tailed monkey of the rocky regions of Asia and Africa.
Within a short time of Imo's discovery, most of her relatives followed her example by washing their sweet potatoes as well.
Imo changed her society-a society in which changes don't come very often- but Imo wasn't finished with changes.
She also loved wheat.
The innovative monkey realized that dropping her wheat, often with sand attached, into the nearby water would cause the sand to sink while the wheat would float. Many of her relatives also switched to the Imo method.

Imo was a smart monkey, and so were those members of her clan who followed her lead. Her wisdom made them wise as well and that is a positive example of how, through imitation, the one can effect changes among the many.
However, Imo's relatives were only smart enough to mimic this new way of cleaning food.

Sadly, it can work the other way as well. The crowd can adopt neutral or even negative effects through imitation.

For example, teaching specific form changes to help athletes in a wide variety of sports is considered an absolute "must" by most coaches.
Many previous form changes were developed by high level coaches watching what their best athletes did during competition.
Lower level coaches began to train their athletes  the same way as the pros but the results we're not always pro level athletes.
Form and function do not always agree.

In the case of faster running, form more often follows function. As runners get faster, their form changes. They adapt to differing wind conditions, surface conditions, etc., without any instructions, yet coaches still spend time on form drills in the hope that athletes might somehow improve what the coach perceives as flawed technique.
Anomalies are forbidden. Individuals must conform to a specific set of limb angles, head positions and assorted other nonsensical requirements that give the appearance the runner is doing the right thing.  

This is a good illustration of what happens when the wisdom of the crowd is lacking; they've only become mere apers of what they see without regard to it's effects.
   
I think Imo, that great innovator monkey of the past, would stay away from these apes!