Photo: wsilver, Creative Commons

By Ed Nicholson

I work with a phenomenal group here at Tyson.  Over the years, they've become incredibly passionate about hunger, and have taken "ownership" of promoting the company's engagement in the issue.  Sometimes we're so proud of our management of it, that we hold on to it a little too tightly.
Kind of like a kid squeezing a new puppy too tightly.  Sometimes you risk loving it to death.
We ocassionally have other groups in Tyson come to us with ideas of how we can do this hunger thing.  Sometimes our initial tendency is to say, "Who do they think they are?! We're the subject matter experts here! We've already thought of that. They should go back to doing what they do best and leave the hunger program to us!" 
But the fact is, if we're ever going to achieve our goal of having the the whole company engaged and involved, we have to give up some of our control.  We have to let others' ideas in, even if they initially don't seem like great ideas. 
Because if we don't give up some ownership, it will be all ours.  And the challenge of hunger is big enough that everyone can and should own a piece of it.