A a project manager, I have held the role of "change agent" for several companies - whether that be through introduction of a new product, process, or way of working.  Needless to say, this has not always made me the most popular person at a company.  Here are a few lessons I have learned along the way when introducing change:

• Make it simple and start out slow - I learned this the first time I deployed an online project management system.  This thing was slick.  It could do everything from assign tasks to manage documentation to provide dashboards and everything in between.  I became so enamored with the tool that I learned about the features and presented everything at once to the entire company right before we rolled out the system.  The look of terror on people's faces in the audience taught me very quickly that if you introduce change, you must do it SLOWLY.  After the initial presentation, I ended up actually shutting down most of the features of this new tool when we released the system and provided initial training.  Over the following months, we enabled new features gradually as people got used to the existing ones.  No one wants to be overwhelmed with change that will make them bad at their jobs; be sure to set people up for success by making change easy to digest.  Deploy systems in phases where possible.
• Train train and then train some more - I listened to a webinar on rolling out new online systems and asked the experts, "What is the biggest thing you learned when rolling out something new?".  The response, without hesitation, was "Train, train, and then train some more".  Project Managers sometimes assume that everyone is super excited about a new tool (many aren't) and that users will take the inititive to investigate all of the cool, new features and get themselves up to speed.  That couldn't be further from reality.  Users, myself included, need a lot of support and training, especially at the beginning. In some cases this will require an ongoing effort to ensure retention of key training concepts.  When rolling out a new system, it is critical that you SHOW people how to use something new rather than just tell them.  I like to have people bring their own laptops to training and work through on hands-on exercises, so they DO everything and we walk through it together.  People retain information much better this way.  Also, plan for an ongoing training program.  Even if you train everyone the first time, a refresher course will help existing and new employees perform at their best.  If you make training fun and interesting and show the value and benefit of what they are learning, then people will learn and be supportive of the program.
• Embrace change yourself - It's easy to tell other people to change and harder to accept it yourself.  If you are to be an agent of change, you need to embrace change around you.  Sign up for a course you are unfamiliar with, try using a new process or procedure in your own day-to-day work, ask other people for ways you can change and improve what you do, etc.  Get excited about embracing change!  When you go to introduce change to others you will have more empathy, and your excitement will motive others to change as well.