Creating a “Stairwell” Speech
Overview
Students develop and deliver a short speech on the question “Why Worksite Wellness?” to explain the value of organizational wellness programs.
Why Use This?
This example helps students practice durable skills like persuasive communication, critical thinking, and professional presentation. Peer feedback is built into the process so students can strengthen their drafts and learn from one another. The structured steps also give students time to refine their work before delivering the final speech.
⭐ What Students Say
Students report increased confidence in giving professional presentations and creating videos.
How Does It Work?
In a nod to wellness, a “stairwell” speech is a slightly longer version of an elevator speech that makes a persuasive case for a topic’s importance. Students develop their speech in three stages: writing a draft, recording a video draft, and producing a final video presentation along with a written script. During the drafting stages, they receive peer feedback and revise, with the work spread across separate lessons to allow time for reflection and improvement.
Project 2 Overview: Why Worksite Wellness? Speech
Part 1: Written Draft – Lesson 8
(Peer feedback)
Part 2: Recorded Draft – Lesson 10
(Peer feedback)
Part 3: Final Recorded Speech and Written Script – Lesson 13
Why Worksite Wellness? Project 2 Phases and Timeline
This project has three parts. Each part will be completed in the lessons corresponding to the graphic above. IMPORTANT Refer to the course calendar for specific due dates. This page provides an overview and instructions for completing each project part.
Purpose
Like the first project in this course, you will work on another three-stage speech project over the next several lessons. As a leader in wellness, it is imperative that you have the ability to be an effective agent of change within your organization as well as outside of your organization. This means you will need to be able to effectively communicate with a variety of groups.
This module gives you a high-level overview of Project 2: Why Workplace Wellness? before you begin the next lesson and the first part of the project.
Overview
This project is similar to the Why Wellness? project. During this two-minute speech, you need to provide a compelling and persuasive story to convince someone of the importance of worksite wellness. You will need to address the following questions:
Why is worksite wellness important? Remember to include the multidimensional aspects of wellness.
What are the benefits of worksite wellness for employees, the employer, the profitability of the company, and other vested parties, stakeholders, and/or society?
What is your call to action?
For effective and compelling speeches, it is important to incorporate relevant personal (ethos), logical (logos), and emotional (pathos) appeals. Your relevant personal experiences, education, and views will contribute to your credibility. It is easy to get lost in the research and regurgitate lots of facts and statistics; however, it is important to bring in other appeals, making sure to show the human impact. 📝 REMEMBER To be effective, it is important to be “affective.”
The details of the project are outlined below.
Project 2 Phases
1. Part 1: Written Draft – Feedback from peers
The written draft should be a narrative of what you plan to say in your speech. Practice timing yourself as you say/read your “story” so it is about two minutes long. While everyone speaks at a different pace, a general guideline for a two-minute presentation is about one double-spaced typed page in 12-point font.
2. Part 2: Video Draft – Feedback from peers
You will create and submit a recording of your two-minute speech to be shared with your peers for feedback.
3. Part 3: Final Video and Final Written Speech – Instructor evaluated
Your final speech should be approximately two minutes in length—no less than 1:45 and no more than 2:15.