OPINION — Having spent my career guiding organizations through change, I’ve learned to recognize when division and disruption reflect familiar human responses to change itself — uncomfortable but often necessary stages before communities reset priorities and move toward healthier, more effective governance.
We are seeing those patterns locally, where policy choices and political messaging advanced by the current Fountain Hills Town Council partisan majority and the political action committee, Reclaim Our Town (ROT), have fueled division and left residents exhausted by conflict rather than encouraged toward collaboration.
In change work, the first critical stage is awareness — helping people understand what is happening, why it matters and how it affects them. When leadership communication prioritizes ideology over inclusion, resistance rises, trust erodes and division deepens.
