The strategic point here is to 'tip the scale' and make a decisive step toward systemic reconfiguration—and thereby toward thriving.

Thomas Kuhn's concept is here adapted to this key purpose, through a series of metaphorical images.

Copernican Revolution

It is not an accident that Kuhn chose the Copernican revolution as textbook example, and dedicated a whole book to it—this example illustrates that a new paradigm is above all a shift of the way of looking in a domain (we may just as well put the Earth into the center of the coordinate system; a problem is that then the description of the dynamics, and the understanding of things, become incomparably more complex). 

Prior to a paradigm shift there is resistance; subsequent to it the new way of looking seems obvious, and resistance difficult to comprehend.

Alice in Wonderland

The ending of Alice in Wonderland is a good illustration of an effect we want to achieve, concretely the point when Alice exclaims, in the midst of an absurd trial: 

'Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) 'You're nothing but a pack of cards!' At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and ...

Alice woke up from a nightmare.

Modern Art

This metaphor is particularly important for understanding the new paradigm in knowledge work (science, academia, informing...) which has been my personal focus.

The birth was painful; everyone knew what a painter was supposed to do: For many years sit in a gallery, and imitate the technique of Old Masters; and then sit in own studio and do similar work oneself.

But some people just couldn't take this:

At the age of 16, Monet left school for Paris, where instead of studying the great artworks of the masters, he sat by the window and painted what he saw outside. (Wikipaintings)

I could say now 'the rest is history', but please follow me for a moment to what later become recognized as 'the first impressionist exhibition', in 1874, where their works were offered for sale, and largely subjected to ridicule. This exhibition later became recognized as the beginning of modern art. If today you happen to own any of the exhibited paintings, you must be extraordinarily wealthy. 

I may also remind you of the 1913 performance of Stravinsky's Sacre du Preitemps in Paris, where a riot broke out in the audience; this piece is today considered as the beginning of modern music.

Horse-and-Buggy vs. a Passenger Jet

Imagine a horse-and-buggy side-by-side with a modern train, or a passenger jet: Even if you might like horses (as I do), it becomes immediately obvious that the latter, and not the former, is a means of transformation that suits the modern world.

And yet this too was not at all obvious in the beginning: 

Thundering along at previously unimaginable speeds, early steam locomotives were a frightening prospect for their Victorian passengers. Before the opening of the first major railway line, the Liverpool & Manchester in 1830, there were fears it would be impossible to breathe while travelling at such a velocity, or that the passengers’ eyes would be damaged by having to adjust to the motion. (Historyextra)

Scientific Medicine

This story is from one of my first school books:

The grandmother prepared a ‘remedy’ for a sick boy, which consisted of a frog leg – so that the sickness would spring out of his body, and seven pebbles – so that it may jump over seven mountains etc. Then his mother gave him a real medicine, and the boy recovered quickly.

I mention this story because it illustrates the notion of a paradigm: if you happen to see some part of our conventional social reality in similar terms as you see that grandmother’s ‘remedy,’ then you might be on the track of a new paradigm.

Ford Motor Company

Paradigm shifts offer to entrepreneurs the first-mover advantages in a completely new domain. Ford Motor Company is here used metaphorically as a paradigm shift in transportation, to point to similar opportunities that a new paradigm may open up in any field:

While investments into oil drilling, gas stations, automobile tire manufacturing, car insurance...  would make little sense in a world where the only means of transportation is the horse, they were sources of large fortunes in the world where Ford had just undertaken to mass-produce automobiles. Systemic innovation in any domain offers similar first-mover advantages to its participants.