Speaker · Philosopher · Author
Kirkland
Tibbels
Co-Founder & Chairman, Influential U®
Originator, Transactional Intelligence®
Co-Author, HIGH TQ: Why It Matters More Than Expertise · Book One of The TQ Series · August 2026
Every leadership framework names what leaders bring into the room. None has named what happens in the exchange itself — until now.
At a glance
- 20+ Countries reached through programs and speaking
- 40+ yrs Developing the philosophical foundations of TQ
- Second City Trained at Chicago’s Second City
- DTM Distinguished Toastmaster — Toastmasters International’s highest designation
The question most leadership frameworks never ask
What is actually happening beneath every conversation?
Every leadership framework ever built teaches leaders to develop what they bring into the room. None of them have named what happens in the exchange itself — the layer beneath every conversation where outcomes are actually produced.
Kirkland Tibbels spent decades building the philosophy and the methodology to answer that question. His academic formation — a Master’s in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness, and doctoral research in progress at the California Institute of Integral Studies — gave the work its architecture: the Transaction Cycle™, the eight exchanges, the four personality types in transaction, and the Infinity Loops™.
A Distinguished Toastmaster and trained at Chicago’s Second City, Tibbels brings philosophical depth and unexpected platform fluency to every session — and gives audiences language for something they have experienced in every consequential conversation they have ever had, and never had a name for.
Audiences: Executive & senior leaders · HR and L&D professionals · Philosophers & educators · Leadership and project teams
Why audiences respond to Kirkland
Philosophical depth. Unexpected platform fluency.
Kirkland Tibbels is the originator of Transactional Intelligence — not a practitioner who learned the methodology, but the person who built it from the ground up over four decades of philosophical research and practitioner work.
His academic formation gave the work its architecture: the Transaction Cycle, the eight exchanges, the four personality types in transaction, and the Infinity Loops. His training at Chicago’s Second City gave him something rarer — the ability to hold a room, read it in real time, and go wherever the conversation needs to go.
Audiences don’t expect a philosopher to be this engaging on a platform. That gap — between the depth of the ideas and the ease with which he delivers them — is where Kirkland operates best.
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The originator, not a practitioner
Kirkland built the methodology from the ground up. When he explains the Transaction Cycle or the Infinity Loops, he is explaining something he originated — and audiences feel the difference.
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Philosophical rigor, platform fluency
A Master’s in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. Doctoral research in progress at CIIS. Trained at Chicago’s Second City. The combination is unusual — and effective.
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Calibrated to the room
Kirkland reads an audience the way a practitioner reads a transaction — and adjusts accordingly. He doesn’t deliver a fixed presentation; he delivers what the room needs.
Signature talks
The exchange layer, from its originator.
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.
Kirkland’s sessions can introduce the category, explore the philosophical foundations of human exchange, or become a working session for leaders ready to apply the methodology directly.
Fees and availability are provided upon inquiry. Kirkland 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 Kirkland Tibbels
The originator of Transactional Intelligence.
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).
His academic formation — a Master’s in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness, and doctoral research in progress at the California Institute of Integral Studies — 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.
A Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) and trained at Chicago’s Second City, Tibbels brings philosophical depth and unexpected platform fluency to the questions most leadership frameworks never ask. Together with John Patterson, he has delivered TQ programs to practitioners across more than twenty countries since 2009.
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 philosophical and practical architecture of the third intelligence.
Co-authored with John Patterson, HIGH TQ introduces Transactional Intelligence as a practical, teachable third intelligence alongside IQ and EQ — and gives event organizers a clear intellectual center for the ideas Kirkland brings to the platform.
The book provides audiences a way to continue the work long after the event.
Book Kirkland
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. Kirkland calibrates to your audience, your theme, and your intended outcomes.
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Podcast & Media
Reach the Press Desk →
Interview or Expert Commentary
Tibbels is a philosopher who trained at Chicago’s Second City and holds Toastmasters International’s highest designation. The combination produces conversations that are intellectually rigorous, genuinely funny, and unlike anything your listeners have heard from a leadership guest. He has never confused depth with dryness. He takes questions to their foundations — and brings them back with something the host did not expect.
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Executive Teams
Request a Conversation →
Private Team Session
For leadership teams who want to go to the source — working directly with the originator of the methodology on their own exchanges, commitments, and recurring breakdowns.
Also on the platform
John Patterson — co-author of HIGH TQ and the practitioner who built TQ into a teachable system — speaks on the same three topics with an executive educator’s delivery. John’s speaker page → · Or meet them both as authors: The Authors →