EP949 - John Patterson on the third intelligence

In this episode of Chasing the Insights, I talk to John Patterson. John talks to us about the third intelligence. John Patterson has spent his career studying a question most professionals never think to ask: What is actually happening in the layer beneath this conversation? The answer is Transactional Intelligence™ — TQ. TQ is skillfully navigating exchanges with others: the structured methodology for navigating the hidden layer beneath every conversation — the human exchanges that produce every outcome. Before co-founding Influential U®, John spent more than two decades as a master trainer and regional director at a global personal development organization — designing curriculum for a $5B enterprise of 40,000 people, running a train-the-trainer program for sixteen years, and leading programs for tens of thousands of people across multiple countries. What he kept watching wasn't a skill problem or a mindset problem. It was a transactional one. Outcomes rose and fell not on the quality of people's thinking or intentions, but on something happening in their exchanges — something no one had named. That question led him to Kirkland Tibbels and to the work that became TQ. Since 2009, John has been the Co-Founder and CEO of Influential U® — the global education company that teaches Transactional Intelligence™ — and co-architect behind its full delivery infrastructure: the curriculum, learning management system, coaching architecture, and faculty certification program that brought TQ to practitioners in more than 20 countries. He is the practitioner voice of the methodology and co-author of HIGH TQ: Why It Matters More Than Expertise, Book 1 of the Transactional Intelligence™ series, written with Kirkland Tibbels (Published August 4, 2026). For decades, the field has measured intelligence in two registers — IQ and EQ. HIGH TQ names the third. Marshall Goldsmith, Thinkers50 #1 Executive Coach, calls it "a third intelligence — the ability to conduct human exchanges that produce ethical outcomes. Practical, teachable, and long overdue." Sanyin Siang, Thinkers50 Coaching Hall of Fame, locates the work precisely: "High TQ names that hidden layer between engagement and actualization — the transactional intelligence that determines whether your superpowers actually land." And Chester Elton, NYT bestselling author of The Carrot Principle, names what it feels like to encounter: "TQ gives you that language. Once you can see the structure underneath your exchanges, everything about how you lead changes. This book is the missing piece I didn't know I was looking for." You can connect with John here: Influential U: https://influentialu.global/ HIGH TQ book: https://tqbooks.com/