The Four-Way-Test

Rotary International has a specific 4-Way Test that acts as our creed. It is recited at the beginning of every club meeting and event and serves as the ideological inspiration of Rotary.

 

Below is the award winning Chamber of Commerce Business Scholarship essay written by a RYLA 2005 Alumni. It is testament to how the Rotary 4-Way test permeates into all its activities, espcially at RYLA--blatantly (camp posters/recitation) and allegorically through the activities. It also offers a personal perspective of the 4-Way test within RYLA specifically and the lessons the test has to offer for Rotarian success and general life success.

 

"The 4-Way Test & RYLA,

the Greatest Ethical Lessons of my life" Troy Campbell

Through my four year involvement in Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Camp (RYLA) which culminated this year with my position as one of the two leading camp directors, I have indulged in what in my opinion is the greatest non-religious ethical system I know of. Rotary’s 4-Way Test recited at every Rotary meeting and event is the focus of an incredible organization which spans the globe and makes a difference everyday in the life of individuals and communities. The test is as follows:

 

Is it the truth?

Is it fair to all concerned?

Will it build good will and better friendships?

Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

 

By following these ideals I believe that the greatest things in life can be accomplished and one can build an ethically successful team atmosphere.

 

It all begins with the truth. Is the intention of the project pure? If the answer is no, then one builds a shaky foundation that will most likely crumble to poor results. At RYLA camp, every year a group of 10 to 14 individuals who participated as campers the year before become alumni/camp directors for the next year. These individuals become camp celebrities for three days. Thus, this position holds the temptation of glory and initially every year a few campers apply for the position solely for this reward. To discourage this, the original meetings focus on each person’s reason for involvement and the discussion of the overall RYLA meaning and complementary guiding Rotary philosophy.

 

Mike Darnold, the official camp director, wants individuals whom are there for the true reasons. He wants individuals similar to my alumni group who he felt were transformed by RYLA. People who want to be there and who are willing to sacrifice so that they can inspire another set of 170 campers the same way they were inspired by last year’s alumni. Ultimately, he wants a group of individuals who are united under the RYLA philosophy, not their own agendas, much like a business wants a group of individuals united as a team for the success of the company.

At RYLA, the success of the camp is what makes the alumni the happiest. This is why these alumni are the ones who stay with the project (no one is ever formally cut from alumni) and spread the message of RYLA. And it’s this purity that shines through every moment of camp and creates such a life changing experience.

 

Following the truth is fairness. I once found myself saying at RYLA alumni meeting during the planning stages, “If things are going slow that night we’ll just pull a couple people up and embarrass them on stage.” To which I was corrected and told that at RYLA, unlike at other camps, “We strive for greatness but not at the expense of others.” The camp is equally there for all. Thus at RYLA in order to treat each individual equally, I ran a number of small side projects during the few voluntary larger activities with the individuals who chose not to partake in those activities. Consequently, everyone felt part of the larger RYLA team, regardless of which activity they were in and thus no one had to be in a game where they felt others’ enjoyment was coming from their expense.

 

''Honestly, the first time I heard it I thought it was some

lofty creed and immediately disregarded it.''

 

RYLA is about friendships, it seems so superficial, but it’s true. We are teaching people to be leaders but we are really specifically teaching them to be friendly, proper, ethical, and ultimately benevolent leaders. RYLA is famous for its family settings, which are groups of 10 campers, an adult team assistant “mother,” an adult team assistant “father,” a big alumni “sister,” and a big alumni “brother.” George Knights, the Upper-Campus principal at San Clemente High School, but more specifically the technology director and alumni-assistant/leader of RYLA 2005, did not understand the magnitude of the families and brushed it aside as unimportant compared to other matters in his original discussions with the alumni (he had never been to a camp before 2005). No matter how much we tried to explain it to him he could not conceive what we were telling him, but mid-way through day two, he sat down with us during a lunch meeting and just went on and on about the incredibleness of the family setting.

The families were united much like any small business task force should be, by various games, challenges, and flat out fun activities. Yet, due to proper planning and over ten years of experimentation every minute of the 2005 camp made newly acquainted strangers dependent upon the support of all the others. From blindfolding them, to tying them together, to then blindfolding them, and tying them together, and then putting them on high ropes courses, we created an atmosphere that not only required, but in a magical way pleasantly encouraged cooperation. We took people out of their comfort zones and immediately they discovered they could find new and more enthusiastic comfort zones with other inspired family members, a lesson that has never left me.

  

 ''Inspired to inspire others!''

 

Finally there is the fourth question which builds on the previous “fair to all concerned” question. This in my opinion is what most lacks in businesses, school groups, and practically any other group setting. There is too much focus on the benefits of the individual or the self. Ironically, at leadership camp I learned to be a follower and a leader at the same time because I discovered both concepts go hand in hand. I have amazing skills in choreography, video production, and stage presence, but everyone else in my family and then my alumni family had skills just as great and just as important as mine in other areas. Depending upon the challenge I learned that either it was my time to take an initiative or my time to let the organizer or DJ use my skills to aid him or her in their area of expertise. Either way, we all benefited equally because we succeed at the goal of benefiting the campers.

Ultimately, I believe that this 4-way ethical system can be transferred to both school life and even more business life. For the system encourages an extreme level of integrity and teamwork. Yet, the obvious problem is that one cannot easily instill upon an individual the 4-way test. Honestly, the first time I heard it I thought it was some lofty creed and immediately disregarded it. It wasn’t till I experienced it through RYLA that it held such a grand effect on me. Thus, I propose that in the business world that company leaders encourage their own version of the 4-way test through small activities and team building activities. Once the individuals are involved in RYLA-like activities their perception of everything changes. And I know that companies for the most part could never feasibly have their own RYLA camps but they can have small mandatory social activities and occasional team building activities/rewards to promote these activities. Plus, even just walking around like the alumni and working with or just personally paying attention to a seeming lower level team can produce a greater level of success and happiness within the group. In conclusion, companies need to present their 4-way-like ethical system at the beginning to new employees and then have the employees live the experience of the ethical system through activities. Eventually they will embrace the ethical system because they will understand it and will want to live it, because of the joy it brings.

 

''RYLA's a Rotary lesson, a life lesson, and a day to day lesson, and the great part, it's all an allegory, so you don't know you've learned it till it's too late, [luaghs]''