Today, company culture is a buzzword that sparks the interest of researchers measuring its relation to company performance. The issue inspired quite a few heated debates in scientific circles. While some research studies demonstrated that strong organizational culture boosts performance, others pointed out that it stifles creativity and innovation in dynamic environments. Still, most businesses strive to build strong company values because they simply make their operation swifter on many levels. Here are five unorthodox tips to building an inspiring culture.

1. Scale your new culture slowly

Countless managers try to transform company culture from one day to another, consequently ending up doing too much and achieving no real effects. An insightful article from MIT Sloan Management Review suggests that changing a company culture takes time. Pick several issues and work on introducing them to your organization. You might encounter resistance, undermining, or even active sabotage.

Don't lose your nerve -- use implicit persuasion and give encouragement to early adopters -- you can arrange for a group or department to channel your solutions and visibly improve their performance. Seeing others becoming more productive and successful will push reluctant people to reconsider their attitudes.

2. Build a culture of adaptability

How does a strong culture impact financial performance over time? This was the key question a group of researchers from Berkeley, Santa Clara and Stanford asked themselves when delving into the issue of corporate performance. They found out that strong company cultures can work in dynamic environments -- but only if one of the employed cultural norms is adaptability.

When building your company culture, make sure to incorporate and support risk-taking, new initiatives and innovative experimentation. Encourage a culture that favors dynamic moves and the quick taking up of opportunities. Set your expectations straight, but also allow your employees to express themselves in a fuller range of behaviors to help them test various approaches to a problem.

3. Manage the drivers of culture

Accountability always starts at the top. When transforming your company culture, you should aim at the executives first -- as Bain & Company suggests, they'll set the example for others to follow, but also emulate the new culture in their gestures and leadership styles.

People who are key to your company should have a clear idea about the values or ideas contained in the new company culture. Clarify roles and accountability for key jobs and add performance metrics or incentives to further engage your drivers of company culture.

4. Increase employee empowerment

According to this recent article from Harvard Business Review, one of the most important signs of a company culture of quality is that employees know how to judge situations that aren't included in the rulebook of your organization and are free to do so.

Too much control will negatively affect their creativity and discretionary action, but leaving them with too little guidance is a mistake as well. Employees will be unsure about their own authority as decision makers. Find the right balance and empower your team to actively emulate the principles of your company culture.

5. Make your message credible

Finally, your message about company culture will only work if it's believable. Your communications should be tailored to meet the requirements of specific employee segments. Have a look at how Diageo managed to create separate messages for 21,000 employees working for different brands in various locations.

Building an inspiring company culture isn't a piece of cake, but it's certainly worth the effort.