A fundamental change in the basic concepts, practices, or assumptions of a particular field or situation; a complete transformation in thinking or approach.
This phrase was coined by philosopher Thomas Kuhn in his 1962 book 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.' Kuhn used 'paradigm' (from Greek 'paradeigma' meaning pattern or example) to describe the dominant theoretical framework in science, and 'shift' to describe how scientific revolutions completely change these frameworks. The term quickly spread beyond science into business, politics, and general usage.
What's remarkable is how a precise academic term for scientific revolutions became perhaps the most overused phrase in business presentations. Kuhn intended it for rare, earth-shaking changes like the shift from Newtonian to Einstein's physics, but now every minor business innovation claims to be a 'paradigm shift' - ironically demonstrating how language itself undergoes paradigm shifts.
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