Potential Space and Maternal Authority in Organizations

In this paper, I will examine Winnicott's notion of potential space as it may apply to organizational life. In Winnicott's theory, potential space is heir to the earliest scenario of relatedness, the phase of the infant's life when basic need meets good-enough adaptation and a sense of ordinary omnipotence or basic confidence is experienced. The overlap between this need-driven gesture of the child and the need-gratifying response of his or her silent partner Winnicott called the space of illusion, which eventually takes physical form as the transitional object, over which the child assumed 'rights'. The notion of rights relates implicitly to a theory of authority, but for Winnicott, it is an authority related to play. Applied to organizational life, potential space might describe a process of members' joining with full creative resources. For this to happen, Winnicott's theory would suggest that the organization's leadership must be able to contact within itself elements of maternal authority. What would this look like, and how would it relate to the more usual paradigms of authority within organizations? I will attempt to sketch out answers to these questions through two consultation vignettes.