Business

Janice Brathwaite Transforms Culture Debt in the Workplace

October 8, 2025

By: Treasure Tunnel

Retention numbers are dropping. Exit interviews reveal the same patterns. Yet leadership is focusing everywhere except on the actual problem: a damaged organizational culture that’s been this way for years.

Even when executives recognize something is broken, they don’t always know how to fix it. They might implement new policies, adjust compensation, or rebrand their values, but nothing changes because they’re treating symptoms instead of examining the foundation.

In common scenarios like this, the real issue isn’t a single toxic manager or a bad quarter for earnings. It’s what Janice Brathwaite calls “culture debt,” the accumulated cost of years of misalignment, unaddressed conflict, and values that exist only on paper.

Brathwaite, founder and CEO of Workplace Transformations, has spent 17 years helping organizations identify which “bricks” in their cultural foundation need repair. Her signature Workplace Transformation Method™ provides a systematic approach to diagnosing and rebuilding organizational culture, moving leaders from reactive crisis management to proactive culture design.

The Business Cost of Culture Debt

Like financial debt, culture debt compounds over time. A promotion based on metrics rather than values creates a precedent. An unaddressed conflict between departments becomes the norm. A leader who gets results through fear gets rewarded. Every decision that prioritizes short-term wins over cultural alignment adds to the debt.

The consequences show up in measurable ways: increased turnover costs, longer time-to-hire, decreased productivity, and declining employee engagement scores.

But the less visible costs cause even more damage. Things like institutional knowledge walking out the door, innovation stifled by fear, and talented people who stop contributing before they leave.

Brathwaite explains, “When I asked myself, ‘Why haven’t things gotten better for employees?’ I realized the root of the problem was culture. Leaders overlook culture until it becomes toxic. My mission is to help organizations identify which ‘bricks’ need repair and rebuild a culture where people can thrive.”

Her work with organizations ranging from healthcare providers to Fortune 500 companies revealed consistent patterns. Organizations that treat culture as cosmetic, by posting values on walls while rewarding different behaviors, accumulate the most debt.

The Five-Pillar Framework

Brathwaite’s signature Workplace Transformation Method™ systematically addresses culture debt through five connected pillars:

1. Diagnose Cultural Misalignment

Most organizations can’t fix what they can’t see. The diagnostic phase uses culture assessments to identify gaps between stated values and actual practices. This means examining which behaviors get rewarded, what messages leadership sends through their decisions, and where informal power structures contradict formal ones.

2. Align Values and Leadership

Real culture change starts at the top. This pillar focuses on ensuring leadership behaviors model the desired culture. When executives say they value transparency but make decisions behind closed doors, or claim to prioritize work-life balance while sending emails at midnight, they create culture debt.

3. Attract the Right Talent

Brathwaite developed what she calls “value-driven hiring,” a process that goes beyond skills and experience to assess cultural fit. This doesn’t mean hiring people who think alike, but rather selecting individuals whose core values align with the organization’s genuine operating principles, not just its aspirational ones.

4. Engage Through Collaboration

Culture isn’t built in town halls; it’s built in daily interactions. This pillar creates structures for meaningful collaboration that reinforce cultural values. It focuses on how work actually gets done—through cross-functional projects, problem-solving processes, and decision-making frameworks.

5. Sustain with Accountability

The final pillar prevents regression. It establishes metrics for cultural health, creates feedback loops, and ensures that leaders at every level are held accountable for cultural outcomes, not just financial ones.

Why Traditional Approaches Fall Short

Many culture initiatives fail because they’re additive rather than transformative. Organizations add training programs, employee resource groups, or wellness benefits without examining the underlying systems that created problems in the first place.

Brathwaite’s approach is different because it treats culture as infrastructure, not decoration. The same way you wouldn’t add a fresh coat of paint to a building with a cracked foundation, you can’t fix culture debt with surface-level initiatives.

Her background as a Certified Executive and Life Coach with a Master’s in Management from Cambridge College, combined with certifications in Lean methodologies and organizational culture assessments, positions her to work at both strategic and operational levels. Named Employer Partner of the Year by Operation Able, she brings both frameworks and practical experience to culture transformation.

Three Immediate Actions for Leaders

While comprehensive culture transformation takes time, Brathwaite recommends three steps leaders can take immediately.

Audit Your Reward Systems

Examine who gets promoted and why. If people advance despite toxic behaviors because they hit certain numbers, you’re building culture debt. Map your last ten promotions against your stated values to identify gaps between what you say matters and what you actually reward.

Make Values Visible in Decisions

When making difficult choices, explicitly reference which organizational values are guiding the decision. This might sound simple, but it forces alignment between stated principles and actual practice. If you can’t connect a decision to your values, that’s a signal.

Create Safe Feedback Channels

Culture debt accumulates in silence. Establish ways for people to surface problems without fear of retaliation. This doesn’t mean anonymous surveys that get filed away, it means creating structures where concerns lead to visible action.

The ROI of Transforming Culture Debt

Organizations that address culture debt see measurable returns. Improved retention reduces recruiting and training costs. Higher engagement drives productivity. Stronger alignment accelerates decision-making. And when culture supports business goals instead of contradicting them, execution becomes more efficient.

For healthcare organizations—a sector where Brathwaite has particular expertise—culture directly impacts patient care outcomes. Staff turnover affects continuity of care, workplace stress influences medical errors, and team dynamics determine how well units coordinate during crises.

Culture transformation isn’t about creating the perfect workplace. It’s about building a foundation strong enough to support growth, honest enough to acknowledge problems, and flexible enough to evolve. Organizations that invest in repairing culture debt position themselves to attract better talent, retain top performers, and execute strategy more effectively.

Moving Forward

As Brathwaite puts it, “The state of your organizational culture is the foundation of your success. Everyone deserves to be seen, heard, and supported in the workplace.”

Workplace Transformations serves nonprofit and for-profit organizations with 100 to 1,500 employees, with specialized expertise in healthcare and medical services.

Brathwaite’s thought leadership appears regularly through her monthly LinkedIn newsletter “The Culture Catalyst,” read by executives and HR leaders across industries. She has shared her insights on podcasts including High Velocity Radio, Reach Radio, “Amplifying Leadership,” and “The Road to Wellbeing.”

To learn more about the Workplace Transformation Method™, visit wptransformation.com or connect with Janice Brathwaite on LinkedIn.