This paper explores how members of a subordinate unit address a pragmatic paradox. While paradox literature acknowledges insufficient agency as a critical condition for addressing paradox, it overlooks the catch-22 of enhancing meta-communication which requires agency to regain agency. Based on analysis of a change process in a nursing department we argue that actors can address this catch-22 by establishing third spaces-which are social spaces of communication to address contradictory issues. The process study reveals a trajectory of iteratively expanding agency from within the unit to other subordinate actors and to dominant actors, that is driven by spacing patterns of establishing third spaces. These insights form a process model that helps to explain how actors regain agency over time to address a pragmatic paradox. In addition to this contribution, the paper strengthens a relational view on paradox, argues for widening the understandings of paradox beyond contradictory demands, and speaks to literature on social spaces by revealing spacing patterns to establish third spaces.