ouchstones are projects that illustrate your comprehension of the course material, help you refine skills, and demonstrate application of knowledge. You can work on a Touchstone anytime, but you can’t submit it until you have completed the unit’s Challenges and Milestones. Once you’ve submitted a Touchstone, it will be graded and counted toward your final course score.
This particular Touchstone gives you an opportunity to practice your productivity, technology, and self and social awareness skills. You will show that you can properly prepare to deliver a speech to your team. (You’ll also have a chance to practice your self and social awareness skill as you craft your message.) Together, these skills will allow you to communicate your best with a variety of audiences and for a variety of purposes both in and outside work, making you more productive no matter what task you take on.
Touchstone 2: Deliver an Informative Speech
SCENARIO: You are a manager at Squidwork, Inc., which is a lucrative online boutique (e-commerce company) that has gone through massive growth in a short amount of time. Over the past two years, there has been an increase in revenue, the team has expanded significantly, and additional leadership has been added to each department. It is the hope of the company to go into the new fiscal year more efficient, structured, and equipped to continuously meet the demands of the modern-day consumer.
A mass communication with more details will be shared across the company.
ASSIGNMENT: In this assignment, as the manager, you will give a 3-5 minute informative speech to your team on the overall status of the company going into the new year. An informative speech is intended to deliver information. No call to action is required for this type of speech.
You will emphasize how the company is doing financially (growth and revenue), how the company has expanded, and address any areas of focus in the upcoming year. In your speech, you must emphasize the following key notes:
1. Financial status: Emphasize how the company is doing financially (growth and revenue)
a. Significant increase in orders
a. Two-year revenue climb
a. Consistent improvement in orders and revenues in the past four quarters
2. Expansion: Mention the number of team members associated with the company and how the company has expanded
b. Hired 115 new employees over several departments
b. Total of 265 full-time employees
b. Hired new COO
b. New supervisory and managerial leadership in the following departments: Purchasing, Receiving, Merchandising/Channel Management, Listing, Customer Service, Picking, Packing/Shipping/Quality Control.
3. Areas of focus: Address the company goal to “become more efficient, structured, and equipped as a team to continue to meet the demands of the consumer.”
c. Focus on collaboration across departments
c. Invest in updated technology
c. Monitor performance and adjust strategies as needed
In order to foster learning and growth, all work you submit must be newly written specifically for this course. Any plagiarized or recycled work will result in a Plagiarism Detected alert. Review
Touchstones: Academic Integrity Guidelines for more about plagiarism and the Plagiarism Detected alert. For guidance on the use of generative AI technology, review
Ethical Standards and Appropriate Use of AI.
Step 1. Create a Speech Based on the Scenario Provided
Consider the audience and purpose and create your speech utilizing the five main parts of any speech:
Main Parts of a Speech | Description |
1. Attention statement | Greet and address your audience with an attention statement that draws their focus to you and your speech. |
2. Introduction | Clearly state the purpose of your speech, while engaging the audience and establishing credibility. |
3. Body | Identify key areas that need to be addressed in your speech: 1. Financial status: Emphasize how the company is doing financially (growth and revenue) a. Significant increase in orders a. Two-year revenue climb a. Consistent improvement in orders and revenues in the past four quarters 2. Expansion: Mention the number of team members associated with the company and how the company has expanded b. Hired 115 new employees over several departments b. Total of 265 full-time employees b. Hired new COO b. New supervisory and managerial leadership in the following departments: Purchasing, Receiving, Merchandising/Channel Management, Listing, Customer Service, Picking, Packing/Shipping/Quality Control. 3. Areas of focus: Address the company goal to “become more efficient, structured, and equipped as a team to continue to meet the demands of the consumer.” c. Focus on collaboration across departments c. Invest in updated technology c. Monitor performance and adjust strategies as needed |
4: Conclusion | Summarize your speech by relating the key notes in the body to the overall topic. |
5: Residual message | Leave a lasting impression on your audience by closing the speech in a memorable manner. |
