One Question on a Friday Call Moves Clients Off the Partners
Ascendient Healthcare Advisors added one question to the check-in its partners already run every Friday. They ask each other whether they were on any calls that week without a manager.
November 3, 2026
·
1 min read
Brian Ackerman says the point is that the learning happens by sitting next to someone, and that a firm working remotely has to force what an office used to do by accident. He includes business development calls on purpose. If he wants the client relationship to belong to the manager, the client has to see that manager from the first conversation.
Why it matters to you.
Most founders try to solve partner dependency with a process document. They write down how the work gets done, hand it over, and find that clients still ask for the partner. That is because the thing being transferred was never the method. It was the relationship, and relationships do not transfer through documentation. Ackerman’s version costs nothing and runs on a meeting that already exists. It also fails honestly. He says the answer should be no, and that they do not do the best at it. A question you answer badly every week is still a question that changes behavior, because nobody likes giving the same bad answer twice. The limit: this works where you are still winning new clients. Ackerman says the established relationships are the trickier ones, and he is right. Start with the new ones.
“One of the Friday check-ins that we have, one of the questions the partners are asking each other, is, were there any calls that you were on this week that a manager was not on? - Brian Ackerman, Partner, Ascendient Healthcare Advisors, a healthcare strategy and consulting firm”
Your one thing.
Pick the standing internal meeting you already run and add one question to it this week. Make it a question about something you want to be true in a year.
Collective 54 is where boutique service firm founders go to make more money, scale with less friction, and build a firm worth buying.
See if it’s a fit →