The Junior Warden: Regulating Tension Before Systems Break

This episode examines the systemic role of the Junior Warden, focusing on how ongoing tension, load, and strain accumulate inside organizations, relationships, and lives. The Junior Warden perspective is framed as the capacity to notice when systems are being held under tension for too long—and to intervene before fatigue, failure, or collapse occurs.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• All systems have a design tolerance for tension and load.
• Persistent overwork or underwork eventually causes systems to fail.
• Systems often break not quietly, but spectacularly, when limits are ignored.
• Expansion and contraction—work and rest—are necessary for sustainability.
• High turnover, burnout, and “hero culture” signal systemic misalignment.

💬 Featured Quotes

• “At a systemic level… any part of the systems that we operate in can only be held under tension for so long before they break.” (0:00–0:28)
• “Managing those tensions and understanding when they get to a level of overwork or underwork… is the systemic sort of perspective.” (0:28–0:49)
• “Parts that are perpetually under tension like that tend to break.” (1:04–1:18)
• “There will be a design tolerance for how much and how long you allow systems to be under load.” (1:18–1:32)
• “Some buildings… are designed to take a load in one direction… completely unable to take a load in a different direction.” (1:32–1:46)
• “If that tension does not get resolved… parts… will fail spectacularly.” (2:07–2:18)
• “This breathing process of expansion and contraction of effort and rest… is vital to the success of any organization.” (2:37–2:56)
• “People will spin out.” (3:13–3:24)
• “The organization will experience a lot of shedding of people.” (3:53–4:05)
• “Very few key players… doing ten times the normal amount of work.” (4:05–4:11)
• “When you see stuff like this, it’s an indicator that the organization is not optimized for meaningful work.” (4:11–4:19)
• “Relieving those pressures from time to time… to prevent systemic fatigue.” (4:24–4:44)

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• Tim Dedman
• Jorge

Creators and Guests

Host

Brian Mattocks

Host and Founder of A Mason's Work - a podcast designed to help you use symbolism to grow. He's been working in the craft for over a decade and served as WM, trustee, and sat in every appointed chair in a lodge - at least once :D

What is A Mason's Work?

In this show we discuss the practical applications of masonic symbolism and how the working tools can be used to better yourself, your family, your lodge, and your community. We help good freemasons become better men through honest self development. We talk quite a bit about mental health and men's issues related to emotional and intellectual growth as well.

At a systemic level, when we talk about the junior award and we're evaluating the interactions

between people, between people on objects, between the locations that people are in, all

of the kind of sort of systemic variables that you're going to look at, and understanding

that any part of the systems that we operate in can only be held under tension for so long

before they break. Managing those tensions and understanding when they get to a level

of overwork or underwork such that they are not being able to deliver on the objective

is the systemic sort of perspective when you sit in that chair of junior award and operating

at the kind of the 50,000 foot view. You start to see that certain parts of your life

may be or the relationships or the organizations you're a part of are under tension. And if

that tension does not get resolved or at least relaxed from time to time, parts that are

perpetually under tension like that tend to break. In systems thinking around this stuff,

there will be a design tolerance for how much and how long you allow systems to be under

load, under strain, etc., etc. Some buildings, for example, that are designed to take a load

in one direction are completely unable to take a load in a different direction. This is not

uncommon, right? So, for example, gravity pulls down on buildings most of the time. If you

pull up on the building, it was not designed for that. If a giant person was to go and grab

a building and pull up on it, there's really kind of not a lot of all the load stressors

and things like that. They're all not designed for that. And in that case, they're going to fail,

typically they'll fail in situations like this or in organizations where it's not designed for

they'll fail spectacularly. When we look at those tensions that we experience in life,

understanding where they are and how they get there and what the cause of them are allows us to

bring that junior warden perspective to the table and say, how can we regulate the ongoing

systemic strain that we're seeing so that the organization can essentially breathe? And so

this breathing process of expansion and contraction of effort and rest or what have you is vital

to the success of any organization as you start to work, work out kind of how you're moving the

overall objective forward. When you see a system where this is not honored, what happens is

individuals, for example, and we'll just use people because it's kind of the easiest part,

easiest example, people will spin out. They will not be able to honor the oath that they've taken

or the commitments that they have made and they will get tired of that. There will be a certain

amount of just weight that they carry. And because of that, weight is never really relieved properly

because that pressure is never relieved properly by the organization or by themselves. So when we

take obligations, sometimes we raise that obligation to a level of absurdity. When that happens,

the organization will experience a lot of shedding of people, right? High turnover,

lots of fatigue, very few key players that are doing 10 times the normal amount of work,

and they sort of wear that as a badge of suffering and a badge of honor at the same time.

When you see stuff like this, it's an indicator that the organization is not optimized for meaningful work.

It's that junior word and function, not understanding that we need to take these tensions that we're

experiencing, both in the individuals in the organization, as well as in the organization at large,

and relieving those pressures from time to time to prevent overload, to prevent systemic fatigue,

to prevent that long-term disillusionment that comes with constantly being underload. And if this

describes any organization that you've been a part of or that you're a part of now, go grab your

junior word and hat and take a look at your junior word and apron rather, and take a look and see

what that, you know, what you might be able to discover, where rest and refreshment might be the

appropriate solution, and how can you implement it at a systemic level to improve the outcomes for

all involved?