How long is a 300 word speech?

A 300 word speech takes exactly 2 minutes at an average speaking pace of 150 words per minute. A deliberate 130 stretches it to about 2 minutes 18 seconds, and a quick 170 brings it in near 1 minute 46 seconds. Two minutes is the standard slot for updating people senior to you, and the thing the clock hides is that they will interrupt. Write 300 words that survive being cut in half at any point.

What fits in 300 words

This length is the two minute status update to leadership.

Three hundred words holds a status, a risk, and a decision you need. Roughly twenty sentences. That is enough to describe one chart out loud without walking through it line by line. Leadership updates at this length work best when the first fifteen words contain the conclusion, because half the room stops listening once they have it and the other half starts asking questions.

A structure that fits

1. 1Conclusion first, 30 to 40 words. 'The migration finishes two weeks late, and it costs us nothing if we hold the marketing date.'
2. 2Evidence, 90 to 110 words. Two facts and their source. Give the number, the date it was measured, and who measured it.
3. 3Risk, 60 to 80 words. The one risk that would change their decision. Say what would have to happen for it to bite.
4. 4Decision or next step, 60 to 80 words. What you want approved, by whom, and by when. End on the date.

Before you deliver it

Rehearse the cut down version as well. Practice a 45 second telling of the same update, because a two minute slot regularly becomes 'give me the short version'. Read your first sentence and last sentence back to back and check they still make sense alone. Time it seated at a table, which is where this one actually gets delivered.