How can an established multinational corporation channel the innovative energy of a startup?

The answer is simple: giving each and every employee space to develop and iterate on their ideas. But the execution can be more of a challenge. That didn’t stop Merck’s Craig Thomason.

Building momentum at the grassroots

Craig, an experienced TEDx speaker and coach, saw the power of a platform for employees firsthand. Returning to Merck after a few years away from the company, Craig and two of his colleagues set out to create imagine@Merck, a program designed to combine the storytelling and creativity of TEDx with the design thinking strategies refined by IDEO. Their ultimate vision? “To create a safe and unapologetic space for ideas and equipping individuals with the tools to turn them to action.”

These days, imagine@Merck is doing just that. But the road to success wasn’t an easy one. Along with two co-founders, Craig worked nights and weekends for months to bring the program to life. “We had a chicken or the egg problem,” he explained. “To get the buy-in to start imagine@Merck, we needed to show the results—but we didn’t have results because we hadn’t started.”

Instead, Craig embarked on a mission to gain grassroots support across the company. His effort coincided with a companywide culture initiative to create a simpler, more focused work environment, and with sponsorship from Merck’s Corporate Strategy Office, imagine@Merck became a reality. Its timing couldn’t have been better. “In the past, when we’ve had these big initiatives, sometimes the way we articulate the vision is very top-down. imagine@Merck takes an approach that is audience-centric and human-centered to communicate and speak to the employee.”

Inspiration to action

Once the imagine team started, the program gathered momentum quickly. In fact, imagine@Merck’s first success story came out of the very first event. A Merck colleague, Adrelia Allen, who Craig describes as “a dynamic speaker,” gave a talk about how to accelerate the company’s efforts to close the diversity gap in clinical trials.  She used the human-centered approach to explain her own father’s reluctance to engage with the medical establishment due to its history of abusing the Black community.

Her message came through loud and clear. As Craig reported, “after that workshop, her work took off so much so that a new role was created for her to focus just on that. She just hosted a program with nearly 1,100 internal colleagues to hear from public health experts on this topic.  It’s our mission come true. A person with a vision was given the platform to articulate it and the tools to start bringing it to life.”

imagine@Merck’s immediate success comes in part from its unique hybrid approach. While the program offers coaching and support for participants as they develop and present talks on their ideas, that’s just the start. The imagine team follows up with design thinking workshops and strategies that bring those ideas to life.

Equipping, not just empowering

In Craig’s view, the imagine@Merck program—now part of the Corporate Strategy Office—isn’t just about empowering participants. It’s about equipping them.

“My friend and author Nathalie Molina Niño recently said that when you hear about programs that aim to empower some group, think about what that says about where power lives. Power isn’t something you get to give others. Focus on what’s blocking people’s power, their growth, and their ability to thrive. Spoiler alert: it’s not them.”

Implementing a program like imagine@Merck, according to Craig, is only possible when a company’s leadership is willing to respect employees’ power from the start and Merck works hard to ensure that. He explained that the ideal is not permitting employees to follow their ideas on a one-off basis but to trust them, give them the tools to succeed, and then create a runway.

Imagining the Future

Craig sees a bright future for imagine@Merck, driven by the commitment of the company’s volunteer community. The initiative has spread to multiple sites, with employees worldwide tuning into virtual events during COVID-19.

“We look for people interested in design thinking to help with workshops, people interested in becoming speaker coaches and people to help others become better communicators,” Craig said. “We’re creating hubs, called imagine days, for people to attend the session to get a feel for the workshops. We then look for ambassadors who will modify the playbook to suit the needs of the program or region.”

Looking back on the initiative’s growth, Craig offered up a key piece of advice for aspiring changemakers. “Don’t underestimate the power of a moment. Moments, if done right, can become movements.”

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