The family as a key type of service system: In my AMA SERVSIG keynote one of the questions was about families as a fundamental type of service system – my talk looked at cities, universities, and businesses as more recent (in the last 10,000 years of human history) types of service systems.   Evert Gummesson, University of Stockholm Business School, gave me some pointers to the Relationships Foundation that has some public policy analysis of family-friendly government (http://www.relationshipsfoundation.org).   I recalled some interesting things I found about families, as I was thinking about them as service systems (1)  “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State”.   Article 16(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (2) “Developing a Family Mission Statement”  Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, and (3) “In the agricultural age, work-life-and-family blended seamlessly.” IBM GIO 1.0.   Also, Chuck Darrah is a professor of anthropology at SJSU, and done some interesting studies of family and work life in Silicon Valley (http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/leaders_entry.php?id=134).