Speaker · Executive Educator · Author
John
Patterson
Co-Founder & CEO, Influential U®
Co-Architect, Transactional Intelligence®
Co-Author, HIGH TQ: Why It Matters More Than Expertise · Book One of The TQ Series · August 2026
The gap between expertise and outcomes has a name. John’s sessions give your leaders the map.
John in action
What you’ll see in the room.
John doesn’t lecture at an audience — he takes them into the exchange layer and shows them something they’ve been navigating without a name.
At a glance
- 20+ Countries reached through programs and speaking
- 10,000s People led through performance and leadership programs
- 20+ yrs Master trainer and regional leadership experience
- 40,000 People in the enterprise for which he designed curriculum
The conversation leaders are missing
Expertise is only part of the outcome.
John’s work begins with a practical question: what conditions produce high performance, and how do you build them deliberately?
His talks reveal the structure beneath human exchange — the layer where commitments become real, agreements hold or fail, and the same conversations either move an organization forward or keep it looping.
Designed for audiences who need more than inspiration, each session gives leaders language and tools they can use immediately.
Audiences: Executive & senior leaders · HR and L&D professionals · Sales organizations · Leadership and project teams
Why audiences respond to John
A speaker who is experienced, clear, and immediately useful.
John Patterson is a practitioner, not a theorist. He brings nearly four decades of experience working with leaders, professionals, and organizations into every presentation.
His fascination with human behavior and performance keeps his talks alive, responsive, and grounded in what is actually happening in the room. He makes complex ideas clear without oversimplifying them and helps audiences see the hidden structure beneath the conversations, commitments, and exchanges they navigate every day.
John is direct, engaging, and comfortable challenging conventional thinking. He does not simply introduce an interesting idea — he helps people get it, recognize it in their own lives and organizations, and know what to do differently when they return to work.
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Experienced, not abstract
Nearly four decades spent leading, teaching, and working directly with people and organizations — long before these ideas became a book.
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Clear and immediately useful
John makes an invisible but consequential subject understandable — and gives audiences language and tools they can use straight away.
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Engaging under pressure
He welcomes sophisticated questions and genuine dialogue rather than relying on a rigid presentation — and often gets sharper when the audience pushes on the ideas.
Signature talks
Three ways into the exchange layer.
Each topic is available as a keynote, half-day workshop, full-day intensive, or virtual session and can be calibrated to the audience and event outcomes.
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The Intelligence AI Can’t Replicate
Why the exchange layer becomes exponentially more valuable as AI handles everything elseAs AI takes over the cognitive layer, the exchange layer — where every commitment, agreement, and outcome is actually produced — becomes the defining human competency. This session names it, makes it visible, and gives leaders the tools to navigate it deliberately.
Best for: AI-era leadership · HR & L&D · Transformation
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We’ve Been Calling It the Wrong Thing
The category error behind your most damaging leadership diagnosisEvery organization has condemned “transactional” behavior without realizing they’ve pathologized the category instead of the execution. This session corrects the diagnosis — and shows what skilled transacting actually looks like.
Best for: Leadership culture · Collaboration · Communication
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You’re Not Stuck. You’re Looping.
Why the same conversations keep producing the same outcomesEvery personality type has a predictable departure point that loops back to the same breakdown. Leaders who can see the loop they’re in — and the loop their team is running — can interrupt it before it costs them their best people.
Best for: Senior teams · Change · Retention · Performance
Available formats
Built to move from insight to application.
John’s sessions can introduce the category, diagnose a recurring breakdown, or become a working session for leaders who need to produce a different outcome together.
Fees and availability are provided upon inquiry. John is available for non-exclusive bureau representation.
Download Speaker One-SheetEndorsements
The work leaders say was missing.
“For decades we have taught leaders to develop their IQ and their EQ. Transactional Intelligence (TQ) names a third intelligence — the ability to conduct human exchanges that produce ethical outcomes. Practical, teachable, and long overdue.”
About John Patterson
Building the conditions for high performance.
John Patterson is Co-Founder and CEO of Influential U and co-author of HIGH TQ: Why It Matters More Than Expertise — the book introducing Transactional Intelligence (TQ) as the third intelligence, alongside IQ and EQ.
He designed enterprise curriculum for a $5 billion organization of 40,000 people, then spent more than two decades as a master trainer and regional director leading leadership and performance programs for tens of thousands across multiple countries.
Since 2009, he has built and run the full delivery infrastructure of Influential U, taking the work to corporate stages and executive boardrooms in more than twenty countries.
Speaking & media inquiries: Email the press desk → or start a chat →
Author · The TQ Series · August 2026
HIGH TQ: Why It Matters More Than Expertise
The hidden intelligence behind every agreement, commitment, and outcome.
Co-authored with Kirkland Tibbels, HIGH TQ introduces Transactional Intelligence as a practical, teachable third intelligence alongside IQ and EQ.
The book provides event organizers with a clear intellectual center for the talks, and gives audiences a way to continue the work after the event.
Book John
Three ways to bring his work to your audience.
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Events
Inquire About Your Event →
Keynote or Workshop
Corporate events, leadership summits, HR and L&D conferences, association meetings. John calibrates to your audience, your theme, and your intended outcomes. Keynote, half-day, or full-day.
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Podcast & Media
Reach the Press Desk →
Interview or Expert Commentary
John speaks fluently to the ideas — the category error behind “transactional,” what TQ adds beyond IQ and EQ, how AI reshapes the human exchange layer, and why expertise alone no longer closes the gap.
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Executive Teams
Request a Conversation →
Private Team Session
For the leadership team that wants to go deeper — applying the Transactional Intelligence methodology directly to their own exchanges, commitments, and recurring breakdowns. Inquiry-based, not off-the-shelf.
Also on the platform
Kirkland Tibbels — co-author of HIGH TQ and the originator of Transactional Intelligence — speaks on the same three topics from the philosophical source. Kirkland’s speaker page → · Or meet them both as authors: The Authors →