Consider which doors the JD and SD guard.
The JD guards the door that established brothers and members come through. He gets to know every member who enters. He's the greeting committee. At the office he would be the corporate insider who serves as glue to hold the company together, to make sure the work gets done and as a moderator to make sure projects that need help get brothers set to work on them. In some lodges the JD is on the committee for social events. He also introduces visitors and makes sure they are integrated into lodge activities. At the office this is the guy who shows experienced new hires the local ropes.
The SD guards the door that candidates come through. He gets to know every candidate who enters. At the office he would be the corporate insider who mentors folks new in their careers into experienced employees. He builds the lodge culture in a way that's less direct than the JD but that is also more from the ground up. At the office this is the guy who shows inexperienced new hires what it's like to operate in a position in this company. He explains both the written rules and the unwritten rules of how the work gets done.
Taken together deacons are like foremen at companies or like NCOs in the military. For those who have learned about the difference they are direct personal leaders who lead by example making sure folks do the work rather than administrators who are project managers who lead by organization making sure the work gets done.
The JW and SW have a similar patters of function but on the management and administrative side rather than the leadership and organizational side. Taken together they are like directors and VPs at companies or like commissioned officers in the military. Executives.
As you pass through the line it's a miniature career. Stewards are gophers and worker bees, enlisted. Deacons are leaders and supervisors, non-Coms. Wardens are managers and executives, officers. The WM is the CEO or President who sets direction and agenda, brass. And the PMs are the board of directors with less formal authority than a corporate board but as much influence, the senior/master CPOs, Commanders and such who are no longer in the direct line between the shop floor and the CO but who rather take care of the unit as a whole.
You'll notice I cut up the chairs using a different pattern than the posts Bro Blake has been using so that it fits the experience of military and large corporation folks. Different perspectives on the same progression.
