The Authors of HIGH TQ
The Authors
Kirkland Tibbels and John Patterson are the co-authors of HIGH TQ: Why It Matters More Than Expertise, Book One of the Transactional Intelligence® Series — releasing 4 August 2026.
Kirkland Tibbels
Co-Founder & Chairman, Influential U® · Originator, Transactional Intelligence® · Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM)
Co-Author, HIGH TQ: Why It Matters More Than Expertise · Transactional Intelligence® Series · August 2026
Kirkland Tibbels is Co-Founder and Chairman of Influential U® and the originator of Transactional Intelligence® (TQ), the structured methodology for the human exchanges that produce every agreement, commitment, and outcome. He is co-author, with John Patterson, of HIGH TQ: Why It Matters More Than Expertise (Influential U®, August 2026) — the first book to name, define, and teach TQ as a third intelligence alongside IQ and EQ.
Tibbels originated the TQ methodology from the ground up. His academic formation — a Master's in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness, and doctoral research in progress at the California Institute of Integral Studies (dissertation: The Philosophy of Transactionalism and the Birth of Transactional Intelligence; advisor: Matthew T. Segall, PhD) — gave the methodology its philosophical spine. The Transaction Cycle™, the eight exchanges, the four personality types in transaction, and the Infinity Loops™ are his architecture, built through years of practitioner work in consequential exchanges.
A Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) — Toastmasters International's highest designation — Tibbels is actively involved in California-based clubs and uses his expertise in communication and human exchange to mentor practitioners and emerging leaders. He also trained in comedy performance at Chicago's Second City, an experience that shapes his platform style: intellectually rigorous, unexpectedly engaging, and calibrated to the room.
Together with John Patterson, Tibbels has delivered TQ programs to practitioners across more than twenty countries since 2009. He speaks on the philosophical and practical foundations of human exchange — why the hidden layer beneath every conversation determines every outcome, and what it means to navigate it consciously.
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John Patterson
Co-Founder & CEO, Influential U® · Executive Educator · Platform Speaker
Co-Author, HIGH TQ: Why It Matters More Than Expertise · Transactional Intelligence® Series · August 2026
John Patterson is Co-Founder and CEO of Influential U® and co-author, with Kirkland Tibbels, of HIGH TQ: Why It Matters More Than Expertise (Influential U®, August 2026) — the first book to name, define, and teach Transactional Intelligence® (TQ) as a third intelligence alongside IQ and EQ.
Patterson's career has been defined by a single preoccupation: what conditions produce high performance, and how do you build them deliberately. Before co-founding Influential U, he designed enterprise curriculum for a $5 billion organization of 40,000 people — from C-suite leadership development to frontline orientation — then spent more than two decades as a master trainer and regional director running a train-the-trainer program and leading programs in leadership, communication, and performance for tens of thousands of people across multiple countries.
Since 2009, Patterson has built and run the full delivery infrastructure of Influential U®: a custom-designed learning management system, course architecture, accountability structures, a podcast series, weekly coaching sessions, a practitioner video library, and a faculty and consultant certification program. He has taken the work to corporate stages and executive boardrooms across more than twenty countries, and works privately with the executives and teams who want to go deeper.
As a speaker, Patterson addresses audiences of executive leaders, L&D and HR professionals, sales organizations, and senior teams on the intersection of human exchange, high performance, and organizational intelligence — what happens in the layer beneath every consequential conversation, and how to navigate it deliberately rather than be ruled by forces you cannot see.
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