The four stages are pre-paradigmatic, normal, crisis, and revolution. In order for a person to change their paradigm, they must experience a crisis.  A crisis in this situation is the time when the person who has the paradigm experiences enough contradictions to what they believe to be true to make them doubt what they know and seek to learn more thus creating a revolution in thought.  When a person receives information contrary to their belief or paradigm, they typically rationalize the information away as an “anomaly”.  If that is the case, how do we help them change their view?

1. Acknowledge the cycle.  Once a person has collected enough data in the pre-paradigmatic stage to create a paradigm then they enter the “normal” stage.  This is where they operate until such time they are presented with enough anomalies they begin to question their “normal” state.  At some point, enough data or anomalies are collected which creates a revolution in their thinking thus allowing them to create another paradigm in which to operate or call “normal”.

2. Understand that paradigm change takes time. People do not change their beliefs as the result of a won or lost argument. They must experience  and acknowledge that new data exists in an old location.  Very much like the drawing above. Some people look and they see an old woman with her chin down in a fur coat.  Others look at the same picture and see a young woman looking over her right shoulder.  Kuhn calls this a “Gestault Switch” in perception.  That is, seeing is believing.  However, for real change to take place what they see has to be validated by other senses and/or data.  They have to experience a change in heart.
3. Acknowledge that people with opposing paradigms are living in “different worlds” and literally cannot see how or why the other views things they way they do.