At a recent meeting, one senior staff member said something that really caught my ear. She had chaired a meeting where people were to do a SWOT analysis on a UCU document.
Now SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in that order. It is commonly used for planning purposes.

In her meeting the members overwhelmingly skipped the strengths and spewed out the weaknesses, and she had to call them back to identify the strengths first! Not that there are no weaknesses; they just seem to be so obvious that we are tempted to ignore the strengths.
Why is it easier to notice the negative things about others or about what is happening around us than it is to see the positive? Ask anyone at this university what they see going wrong and you will have as many things as the people you ask.
If on the other hand you ask for the good things, you may need to give them time to think about it! This truth is not new to me but it rang so true and disturbing to be reminded about it.
I have also been around people who grumble incessantly; they pollute the atmosphere around them. My wife and I once offered a lift to two such grumblers. The conversation in our car for the next 40 minutes was suffocating; they ‘murdered’ our cheery ambience!
I do not know how you feel about the grumbling of the children of Israel as they journeyed from Egypt to the Promised Land. Crabbiness was their cherished pastime; they saw wrong in every step the LORD led them to. The problem was not what they lived through, but clearly with their attitude.
The case in Numbers 11 is one among so many. The presenting issues here are not uncommon; they faced misfortunes and a monotonous diet. They were in effect saying to God, “You are doing a poor job taking care of us.” All grumbling is ultimately against God. The LORD was quick to act in judgment. He does not condone grumbling. What do we learn from this story?
Grumblers usually have a self-righteous attitude. Everyone else is in the wrong and I am right. Often Moses became the target of their grumbling. It was not because he orchestrated the misfortunes; he happened to be the man in the office, and therefore was in the line of fire. They did not try to understand him either. This sounds familiar.
A grumbler does not look for facts. He/she is right and that case is closed.
Furthermore people who grumble must have it their own way. Their comfort is paramount and we all owe it to them. They are not designed to see misfortune; their world is a perfect fit. When Israel faced hardships they did what they knew how well to do, grumble. It soon became their second nature – grumble, grumble, grumble!
In fact we are told of a rabble among them – probably Egyptians who came out with them. When this mob grumbled, Israel was at hand to join in. And that is often the way grumbling happens; it can be infectious. If we cultivate a habit of grumbling, we learn to grumble over what does not concern us!
Finally, grumblers have a judgmental attitude. Their self-righteousness makes it easy to see your wrong, and they send you to the gallows without trial! Poor Moses became suicidal because of their grumbling. Under the weight of their petulance, he cried to the LORD, “Kill me at once.”
Are you a habitual grumbler? Please learn to spread some cheer today before you lead someone to ‘suicide’!

Dr. John Senyonyi is the UCU vice chancellor